The Blindboy Podcast - Luxury Tungsten

Episode Date: December 27, 2017

Collectivism vs Individualism, Dogs Vs Cats, The Trout of No Craic Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy Wednesday, it is the Wednesday morning podcast, what's the crack? How are you getting on? I hope you've been well, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I am very happy to report that we are 10 weeks at number one on the podcast charts, which I'm humbled by, unbelievably humbled. When I started this podcast 10 weeks ago, there's 400,000 of you have listened to this podcast and growing. 10 weeks ago, this is where I thought I'd be in a year or two years. You know, I genuinely believed that this podcast was going to start

off small and I'd stick with it and it would very humbly grow. And it just went mental. You know, we've got something like 200,000 listeners in Ireland, 60,000-70,000 listeners in the UK, 10 or 15 in the US, a few more in Canada and Australia. I can't believe it lads. But thank you very much. Thank you for subscribing to the podcast and thank you very much for leaving lovely reviews. And please continue to do so and recommend the podcast to a friend. So what happened last week? Well I gave you a little short story there on Christmas day as a present. A short story about a pigeon and I tried to keep it a little bit family friendly. I hope

you enjoyed it and I hope you had a wonderful Christmas I left you last week with a message about Christmas, about the importance of you know, how Christmas can be a bit difficult for some people because, you know you go back to your family of origin and

you know, if you've got issues with people in your family or people in your family have issues with you fights can happen and drink is involved, if you've got issues with people in your family, or people in your family have issues with you, fights can happen, and drink is involved, and the other thing too, and I forgot to mention this last week, whenever you're in any situation around your family, you can end up psychologically regressing to a time of childhood, because, you know, that's what you associate with your family, so your capacity for rational adult behavior becomes quite diminished when you're around your family so it's another thing to have in your awareness i cut the podcast short last week because i had to go for a mandatory seaweed bath, which was odd, I'll be honest, it was, you know, it was a little bit relaxing,

I'm in a warm bath, full of seaweed, and there's, you know, candles, and it was nice, but I just felt like a giant tea bag, you know, I just felt, I felt like a tea bag, and the seaweed wasn't particularly pleasant, I, I was kind of like, look, can I just have the bath, and get the fucking seaweed out of the bath, please, because I kept imagining fucking an octopus, or a crab coming out, and biting my knee, and it smelt like, it smelt like sushi, do you know that seaweed miso kind of smell you get off sushi, so I would not be recommending a seaweed bath for anybody, it's up to you if you want to do it, I'd rather bathe in soap and furry things like that, you know, with nice smells like lavender or sandalwood, but not fucking. Not seaweed.

I don't know why anybody would do that. It was forced upon me. But. If mandatory seaweed bats. Are my biggest complaint. Then. I think I'm doing pretty okay. In the scale of.

Things to be complaining about. And worrying about. But I won't be doing it again. be complaining about and worrying about. But I won't be doing it again. Last week we also spoke about Northern Soul and my hot take, which correlated Northern Soul with rave music, which I think was about 90% accurate. There was one fact, however. Well, I can't call it a fact.

accurate. There was one fact, however. Well, I can't call it a fact. I mentioned that Northern Soul Records made their way to Manchester and places like that as a ballast on coal ships. And a few people were wondering, where did I find that out? Because I couldn't find it online. And it doesn't exist online. I found that out because a buddy of mine was doing a phd in subcultures and he told me this so it's more hearsay and what i'll say about it it's a very very interesting fact and anytime a fact appears to be too interesting always take it with a pinch of salt that's what i say you know it's like with conspiracy theories, conspiracy theories are, they're the most interesting story, you know, because the truth is often too boring, so we latch on to the theory that seems the most entertaining, the theory that we'd like to see as a movie, one thing I did learn last week,

which is quite beneficial, I speak about music quite a lot, and I did learn last week which is quite beneficial I speak about music quite a lot and I was concerned last week that I was speaking about you know a very specific type of music but I wasn't able to show ye any audio examples and I did a bit of research and it should be okay for for me to occasionally play snippets of music if I am critically analyzing or reviewing or commenting on that music then you can kind of get away with it under a fair use license so I'm gonna see about doing that um I was worried about iTunes flagging any tunes and then getting it good to getting the podcast wiped offline as you know I set up a Patreon page patreon.com forward slash the blind boy podcast

and a few of you have been very generous thank you very much and you've been donating some money to the Patreon and like I say with the Patreon if you want to give a few quid do if you don't want to give a few quid if you can't afford it no worries

that's no problem at all makes no difference it's just a goodwill gesture and the podcast is still going to continue even if I get nothing in the Patreon having said that though as a little treat for the Patreon

donators this week I'm going to have a very brief appearance from a little guest. I'm going to have a guest on the podcast this week and I've given him a little contributor's fee to make a short report on a topic that I chose for him and I'd like you all to welcome now the Trout of No Crack. How have you been, sir? A bit of care, you know yourself. Apples and oranges, apples and oranges, you know.

Yeah. I'm going to ask you to move a little bit closer up to the mic there. Just a little bit closer because I can't hear you. Around here, is it? Yeah? All right, sir. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? Is that the mic? It is, yeah. If you don't know the trout of No Crack,

he's a long-time collaborator. He's a trout. He's an actual trout. He's a brother of the mythical fish, the salmon of knowledge. Is that right? Yeah, salmon of knowledge. That's my brother.

Yeah, and what I asked him was to make a little, make a little, a short radio piece, wasn't it? A radio piece, yeah. A short radio piece. Yeah. And you suggested to me a topic that you wanted to do a radio piece on. Well, that's right, what I wanted to do, well, I've recently joined a gym, and I've met a good crew of boys in the gym, got Claire and Sally and a few more, and what we've started doing in the gym, it's a good crew of boys in the gym. Got Claire and Sally and a few more. And what we've started doing in the gym, it's a new type of training where we rack out a line of Keanu Reeves, snort it and bench press like lunatics. And I wanted to do a report on that.

Yeah, and I got your email with that request. But that's not in fitting with the tone of the show or the tone of the podcast at all. So what we agreed upon was that you were going to do a radio report on Japanese city pop, electronic Japanese music from the 1980s. Isn't that right? Well, I didn't really want it, to be honest. But you were giving me 50 quid, which is a bit stingy, to be honest, you know. But I did, yeah. I have a small report here.

Now, I have it here on a disc somewhere. I'm trying to do it. It's on Japanese City Pop. Do you want to hear it? Okay, we'll put that in. This is a special report on 1980s Japanese City Pop from the Trout of Norcrack. Japanese City Pop from The Trout of Norcrack. Turkey, 1981.

The Japanese economy had experienced a massive boom due to its electronic exports. These were the songs that defined that era. sounds that defined that era. Japanese city pop, a disco funk jazz fusion genre which was the soundtrack to a capitalistic optimism. When the emphasis of the music

was on audio fidelity, it had its roots in the earlier music of Yellow Magic Orchestra, the project of Ryuichi Sakamata. The fidelity and mastery of electronic sounds is evident in this song, known as Rai-Den from 1979, third player Ryouchi.

Japanese city pop would be my favourite type of music. If you come up to me with another type of music, you can go fuck yourself, because I've no interest in anything else. Like, seriously, I swear down under the holy picture, Japanese city pop, listening to it in my car, inside my Toyota,

all day long. And if you come up to me with anything else, man, I'm going to be picking glass all day off here. Fucking God, step down. In my own personal opinion, Japanese silly pop came into its own in the mid-80s with the work of Hiroshi Sato and his son, Shiny Lady.

No. No. What's wrong? No No What's wrong? What's wrong? Man, I'm trying to create a podcast hug Yeah For these people I'm trying to create a relaxing Yeah

A relaxing environment Yeah How did you even Did you It sounds like you recorded that in a phone box Sounds fine to me Cause sounds Sounds fine to me

I gave you access to the studio and everything. How the fuck? 50 euro. 50 euro. If you're going to be cheap with the contribution fee, that's what you're getting. 50 euro, cuz. No, man, you voiced over a Japanese man,

and you don't even speak Japanese. A fee for translating then as well. I turn it into Google Translate. It's all the same to me alright I don't listen to Japanese fucking city pop I want to talk about Don Keanu Reeves and the gym with the bears I should have done that report on

Japanese city pop myself I should not have contracted the assistance of the Trout or no crack I apologise there will be better effort in future no I'm fucked out I'm going anywhere look do you know what man a podcast is an effeminate medium you're emasculating

yourself you're making a cuck out of yourself I'm leaving and it's not just me saying that there's a few people around town and they're saying that you're using an effeminate medium you're emasculating yourself you're a cuck man you're a cuck goodbye

the Trout have now crack there with his report on Japanese city pop music which is a it's a genre of music that I stumbled across recently on YouTube em and I like it just because it's weird

do you know I wouldn't find myself listening to it loads. But it brings me on to the topic of this podcast, which is I want to talk a bit about Japan and Eastern culture. Japanese city pop is a type of music that came about because of technological advancement. The vast majority of electronic instruments were invented by the Japanese. the vast majority of electronic instruments were invented by the Japanese synthesizers and drum machines were all Japanese inventions

that were put into use mainly by western artists but the Japanese themselves absolutely nailed the use of these instruments it's just we'd never heard this music over here at all and I stumbled across Japanese city pop on YouTube you won't find it on iTunes you won't find it on iTunes. You won't find it on Spotify.

Because it's too rare. But now you're getting people kind of uploading that 80s music. And it's mad complex. If you're into jazz and stuff. Like Jesus the musicianship on it is phenomenal. But mainly it was being made to be listened to in cars. Because the sound systems in Japanese cars in the 80s were phenomenal so the music was being made to match

the fidelity of these sound systems and the Japanese have always been very advanced with technology there's a few theories behind it one of the theories is as a result of the Hiroshima

bombings. Japan is the only country that has had nuclear weapons used against its civilian population. The Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people in a flash. They're the only culture and society that has come close to an apocalypse. And you see this reflected in their art and culture if you grew up watching anime things like akira if you've ever seen akira there's an obsession with post-apocalyptic themes because that's what they grew up with that's what the post-war japan was we almost got wiped off the planet but But the bombings in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, they ended World War II. And the Japanese immediately surrendered.

Which is something within Japanese culture you didn't do. They had kamikaze pilots, which were pilots that would fly their planes into US warships. Suicide pilots. Because to die by the sword was more honourable than to be defeated in battle. So the Yanks' logic in dropping those atomic bombs was like, we're never going to beat the Imperial Japanese in conventional warfare, they'll never give up, so we've got to freak them out with nuclear power, and that's what happened.

Well, almost. The other thing that the yanks had planned and this is nuts they they did a lot of firebombing of japan because japanese buildings were wooden so the yanks the craziest plan that the yanks had come up with to freak out japan is that they were going to attach firebombs onto flocks of flying bats and the plan was is attach a little firebomb to a flock of bats the bats would go to Japanese cities and hang upside down in rafters then in America they'd press a button and all the bats would explode at once with firebombs and set fire to japan that was an actual plan that almost happened but the yanks said fuck that no we'll drop two nuclear bombs on them instead and if they don't surrender we're going to keep dropping nuclear bombs

on their cities and eradicate them so after japan surrendered the world powers kind of pressured them into the world powers got scared because imperial Japan they were vicious incredibly vicious the nationalism that Japan had was very extreme they aligned themselves with Hitler and the war crimes that they committed in Asia were some of the most disgusting that World War II had seen. The rape of Nanking, which was a massacre in China, where rape was used as a systematic weapon of war, one of the horrendous, horrendous spectacle of humanity. The Japanese committed that. The West were afraid that after they bombed the Japanese with these nuclear bombs, that they would retaliate, that they would go silent for a while and then learn to retaliate.

So many sanctions were brought in against the Japanese. The main one was that they were not allowed to import any decent quality steel up until the 1990s. There was an embargo on Japan importing high quality steel for military reasons. Japan was forced to agree to not expand its military and it took up a position of military pacifism. So the older listeners of this podcast will remember when you were younger, if you grew up in the 70s or 80s, that Japanese cars, Toyotas and Suzukis,

they would have had different coloured doors or bonnets. You might have seen a yellow car with a red door or a green bonnet. And that's because Japanese cars used to fall apart they used to rust because they weren't allowed to have decent steel but the upside to this embargo is that it forced japanese scientists and workers to focus their ingenuity on the inside of the car so you ended up with japanese cars that fell apart but the insides were absolutely amazing the technology on the inside the radio the suspension the lot was perfect again this technological advancement is what led to the creation of japanese city pop music because technology was their thing.

You don't need high grade steel to make a decent radio. But there's other stuff about Japan that just makes it appear to be a country that has its shit together. As a society it appears to work more efficiently than other societies. They have one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world for a population of its size. Now what some say this comes down to is what's known as collectivism. And collectivism is it's something that we in the West don't fully relate to.

There's kind of a split in Eastern and Western thinking that goes back years and years and in the east countries tend to be collectivistic in nature whereas in the west we're individualistic now what collectivism is is that it's the principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it. That the way that you think, you think as a whole, not as an individual. Whereas we in the West, we tend to think of ourselves first. And then the group that we are a part of comes second. Our society comes second, but we are number one.

That's not how it works in the east we in the west our individualism kind of hangs on the fact that the tenets of our culture and society come from greek and roman philosophy okay which is tends to be individualistic for me one of the shining examples of this is the word pupil as in your eye the pupil in your eye that comes from a latin word well no it comes from originally greek and what pupil literally means is a little doll the word for pupil is when you look into another person's eye, you see a little dull reflection of yourself in their eye. And that to me sums up our Western individualistic thought. That our very word for this eye, that you're not even looking into another person's eyes, you're merely looking at your own tiny reflection in their pupil.

That to me is the core of Western individualism. Even taking it so far as, you know, I as in the thing that's in your head that you see through and the word I as in me are the same fucking sound. That is quite an egotistical, individualistic, the language there, you know, the core of the language there. But in Eastern culture, it's quite different. Eastern cultures are collectivist. There isn't really an I, it's a whole, it's holistic, that a person cannot exist by themselves, that they are part of a greater system and serve a purpose. Do you remember growing up on TV, you'd see footage from China or Japan, and you'd see people in the subway wearing face masks.

And I always grew up thinking, Jesus, you selfish fuckers, wearing a face mask so you don't get sick I always looked at that and I thought it was quite rude that if I was to walk around Limerick with a face mask on that I'd look like a hypochondriac if someone carries hand sanitiser around with them in Ireland if you shake somebody's hand and take out the hand sanitiser

it's like calling the other person dirty it's like I'm cleaning my hands because I just touched you and I used to always think this when I saw It's like calling the other person dirty. It's like I'm cleaning my hands because I just touched you. And I used to always think this when I saw people in the East wearing the face masks. And then I found out the reason that Japanese people or South Korean people wear face masks in public is because they are sick and they don't want to give it to somebody else. That is collectivistic thought they are protecting society from their germs it has nothing to do with getting germs off someone else and i as a westerner i couldn't even i couldn't even relate to that without projecting selfishness on them holistic thinking is also one of the the kind of tenets of

collectivist thought and how it differs from western individualist thinking holistic thinking means that the parts of something are only explainable by reference to the whole ok that no one thing exists by itself

that everything is interconnected the ancient chinese had this figured out years ago western westerners would have looked at the planets and seen each planet as just and you know they'd look off into the stars and see them as individual planets whereas the ancient chinese had figured out that the moon and how close it is to the earth and gravity affects the tides. And that's an insane jump of thinking for us. But not when you think in a holistic fashion. Because the ancient Chinese knew that like the moon can influence the tides.

Yeah, it's all part of the same. It's all the one. But in the West, we only learned this recently through scientific evidence and through testing and through proving it. We didn't have to make that leap of judgment would have been too much for our individualistic culture.

But even something as modern and as advanced as quantum physics is proving to be holistic in nature because they're showing now like out with the the large hadron collider that a quantum particle if it's separated from another quantum particle, even though they're far apart, doing something to one will influence the other, even though they're not connected. So the very fabric of what makes up our reality is most likely holistic. studies on societies from individualistic ways of thinking and collectivist ways of thinking to try and find evidence to see if this culture affects how we actually perceive and how we innately think and there's one survey they carried out where they got three words bus train and tracks and they asked people which two of those words go together so when they went to the western countries the individualists the responses were overwhelming that bus and train

go together because that's an abstract analytic thought that is uh bus and train are forms of transport but when they went to eastern individual or collectivist cultures, the answers were that train and tracks went together. Because the train and the track are part of a whole, they're part of a system, they're holistic. An area of Japan that's quite interesting in this respect is, there's a part of northern Japan called Haikido or Hokkaido. And it's an island and it was only very recently inhabited it was inhabited around um 1871 it was just at the very tip of japan at the top and there was only indigenous tribes living there the japanese decided they were freaking out about that russia was going to invade

them so they told the japanese people and they got Americans involved as well to colonize this northern island and to treat it like a frontier and now what they find is that the people living in Hokkaido have a very different cognitive profile to the rest of Japan they exhibit ways of thinking and cultural ways of seeing themselves that are more

individualistic than collectivistic. They're much more prouder of success, they're more ambitious for personal growth and they're less connected to the people around them and this is quite different to the rest of Japan. Haikaido was created around frontierism like the American Wild West and this is why now there are cultural similarities between the two communities because this Japanese collectivism is one of the reasons behind their technological advancement

they just work well in teams and a team is better than a group of individuals. A team is concerned with the overall goal. It's not concerned with individual egos. And this is good and it's bad. It's very bad when nationalism becomes, you know, when that comes to the boil. As you can see as evidenced by the behavior of imperial japan who were a shower of goals also as well the racists in the west look towards japan as a society that

kind of are on the ball when it comes to racial purity. Japan have very tight immigration laws. They've got very tight laws around foreigners getting in. It's quite a racist society. So I'm not saying that collectivism is necessarily a good thing. Marxism is an attempt at bringing collectivist thought to Western individualistic capitalism. It borrows from eastern collectivist ideas so where am i going with this like what i want to get at is is why why and how does this happen why in the west for many many years are we more individualistic in our thinking and in how we traverse our

society and then the people in the east are collectivist well what it comes down to what people are saying what anthropologists are saying it comes down to the growing of crops. Right? And this predates, you know, fucking, this predates philosophy. If you look at the philosophy of the East, it is collectivist. You've got Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism. And then on the West, we've got the Western Greek and Roman philosophers that were individualistic. It comes down to the primary source of carbohydrate in these different parts of the world. Mainly rice versus wheat.

In cultures where rice was being grown, the very practice of growing rice is collectivist in nature. To grow rice, it requires intense cooperation from every single member of the community. Very complex dredging, big paddy fields, planning for floods, sowing the rice seeds. If you don't look after your neighbour, then you don't eat. if you don't look after your neighbour then you don't eat. Countries that are collectivist in their society also happen to have depended upon the growing of rice

as their civilisation developed. Western civilisation however depended upon the growing of wheat and wheat farming it takes about half the amount of work and it depends on rainfall rather than irrigation. So collaboration isn't, it's not as necessary with growing wheat. So Western society ended up being quite individualistic and a little bit selfish. And they found this in China, because China's fucking massive. Not all of China depended upon rice. And they found this in China, because China is fucking massive.

Not all of China depended upon rice. Some of China in the north were able to grow wheat. Culturally, the wheat growing areas of China are much more similar in thought to westerners. They're individualistic. And the rice growing areas are eastern. They're collectivistic and this is why Japanese people will put a mask on their face

if they're sick, it's why illegal downloading in Japan was basically non-existent up until about 10 years ago and it's why crime is so low and that is today's hot hot take of the podcast and I'd like to thank the trout of no crack

for facilitating this to happen we'll leave a little pause now for the advert and I'm going to look for my Spanish whistle my ocarina so we can have the weekly ocarina pause for the advert

on April 5th you must be very careful Margaret it's the girl, witness the birth bad things will start to happen evil things of evil it's all for you, no don't the first omen I believe the girl is to be the mother.

Mother of what? It's the most terrifying. Six, six, six. It's the mark of the devil. Hey! Movie of the year. It's not real, it's not real. What's not real?

Who said that? The first omen, only in theaters April 5th. Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever? Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, to support life-saving progress in mental health care. From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together and show those living with mental illness and addiction that they're not alone.

Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind. So, who will you rise for? Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca That's sunrisechallenge.ca So you may or may not have heard an advert there. How are you getting on with your looking after your mental health as you know as I always mention

this is not a mental health podcast but because I'm a person who is actively and continually maintaining their mental health it's going to creep in every so often and I'd like to include you in my mental health it's going to creep in every so often and I'd like to include you in my mental health journey. Because it was Christmas there and because with Christmas your schedule

gets fucked up I went about three or four days without any exercise And it really and truly. Made me realise. Just you know for me personally. That exercise. Is my natural antidepressant. I'll run. Four days a week. I'll go to the gym the other three. And.

One thing that I find crucial. In. What keeps me doing this. I don't do it for physical doing this I don't do it for physical fitness I don't do it to look a certain way I used to do that when I was younger and I found that when I was going to the gym or when I was trying to exercise for physical results that's when I found myself going very intensely for a while and then giving it up, not being able to stick with it. And this came into my head recently when someone on Twitter gave me a very controversial question, which was, do I believe that fat shaming is a good thing if it results in someone going to the gym? Do I believe that fat shaming is a good thing if it results in someone going to the gym?

And I thought about it. And it's like, no, I don't think it's a good thing. Because if someone is shamed for their body or someone is bullied about their appearance, and this then does actually motivate them to go and try and change this through exercise or through dieting or whatever what it does is it's only ever going to be short term if you engage in any type of exercise or self-improvement and the end goal is something as uh tangible as your appearance or your weight as tangible as your appearance or your weight, then the nature of it means that you're going to give up because what you're searching for is a happiness and that you can't get that happiness

because the happiness can only come from self-acceptance, not by trying to change yourself. And I've been steadily exercising every day for about four years and what has kept me at it is I do it because I enjoy the process. I genuinely, I go out for a run because I want the experience of running. I want the release of endorphins in my mind and my body. When I go to the gym, I like to lift weights so I can get that release of endorphins in my body. I'm not going into the mirror afterwards or measuring myself or hoping for any goals, physical goals.

If they happen anyway, great. All right, who gives a shit? But I exercise for the sheer love of the process because, like I said said that is my body's natural antidepressants and I had about four or five days out there over Christmas or three days where I did no exercise whatsoever and after about two days I found myself being slightly irritable I found myself lacking massively in energy having that feeling of sluggishness where your skin feels itchy and I found that my thoughts were becoming negative when I was thinking about the challenges ahead of me for 2018 such as um I'm working on two tv projects and I've got a book to write.

When I was thinking about these things, my mind was focusing on what could go wrong. It wasn't focusing on what could go right. And I found this was because I wasn't exercising. Whatever exercise does to my brain, whatever oxygen it gets around the body, it very much equips me for base level stress. And then as soon as I got out and went fucking running, then of course I started to become more positive in my thinking. I wasn't feeling angry at myself or angry at other people. I was just a nice base level of calm

and if a stressor comes at me I was dealing with it as it comes and that's what exercise does for me not to be facetious as well lads and I said this last week I know what it feels like to have hardcore depression and hardcore anxiety and I know how difficult it is to even get off the couch but that's just me that's where I am it took me many many years to get to the stage where I can exercise every day I've done the struggle and this is where I'm at now and I appreciate it for you that sounds impossible if you do want to start running and if it's something you're thinking about like there's a lot of people as well, like I mean, some people are embarrassed to go running, you know, I remember I used to

be like that, you're embarrassed to even be out there doing the running, you think people are looking at you, you think people are judging you, and I know what that feels like, it's not the case though, no one gives a shit about you running, chances are if someone sees you running, they're a little bit jealous that you you running. Chances are if someone sees you running. They're a little bit jealous that you're running. And they're not. But if you do want to give it a lash. I would suggest download a couch to 5k app.

And these are apps that will. You just listen to it. And it will gradually train you. Over about 6 weeks. To go from sitting on your couch. To actually running 5km. And. It's not. Look it's hard at the start exercise is awful at the start but it gets grand i was actually thinking and i might do it for 2018 i might do a special podcast that is my own couch to 5k for anyone

who's interested in running and And what I'll do is. I will take you through. A very basic. Resting. Running. Resting. Running. For a half hour.

Until there's 5k in it. And maybe. I might do that. Maybe. Make a few tunes. That go with your heartbeat or something. Why not? But.

Yeah. So I wasn't exercising for a while. And I found my thoughts becoming quite negative and when I was looking at projects ahead of me I was focusing on the negatives and when your when your mental health starts to go astray we look at challenges in a very irrational fashion we'll say this second book that I have to write if I'm irritable or if I'm not you know handling stress

I will look at that book as a mountain I will treat it like if someone says write a book I will assume that they're saying there's a mountain I want you to jump it and then I'll freak out because it's like I can't jump a mountain look at the size of it whereas the rational way to look at

any project that's ahead of you or not even a project it could be washing the dishes always be cautious when you think you're telling yourself you need to jump a mountain that is an irrational thought process the way you go at a project is you have to climb the mountain you're going to set up a base camp and then you're going to climb a little bit every single day and i think when it comes to happiness human happiness it doesn't come from results it happiness is enjoying a journey that's what happiness is i intend i loved writing that book last year but when i finished the book and even when i got it published and saw it in shops that did not make me feel happy at all In fact it made me feel. A strange emptiness. Because.

You get this feeling of. Oh it's done now is that it. And the happiness was the journey. In anything that you do. Happiness comes from. The enjoyment of that journey. And. The trick is when you get to your destination.

Just figure out where the next destination is. Don't think that the end of that journey, at the end of it, is going to be happiness. That's not how it works. Happiness happens along the way. And when it does happen, you don't even notice that's the case. Humans are goal focused. the case humans are goal focused we do well when we have a little horizon a little spot ahead in the horizon to always be looking at and moving towards but once we get to that point we can be left with an existential dread and an existential loneliness so keep moving. Whatever it is, keep moving. It's like the old the rainbow

and the pot of gold. The rainbow is what's beautiful. You know, when you try and chase that rainbow, there's no pot of gold. There's nothingness. So keep looking up at the rainbow. Keep chasing it. But fuck the pot of gold. It doesn't exist. I once knew an American man who thought leprechauns were called leprechauns. Speaking of American men. I think about this time in the podcast. I like to read out some of Donald Trump, President of America. I like to read out his tweets. As your drunk limerick aunt

so this week your limerick aunt is she's over at your house because it's Christmas and you're all sitting around you want to watch Die Hard or whatever and she's on the Baileys

and she's got a hair up her arse and she's slurring her words and she whispers into your ear I hope everyone is having a great Christmas then tomorrow it's back to work in order to make America great again which is happening faster than anyone has anticipated. Based on the fact that the very unfair

and unpopular individual's mandate has been terminated as part of our tax bill, which essentially repeals over time, Obamacare, the Democrats and Republicans, will eventually come together and develop a great new healthcare plan. All signs are that business is looking really good next year. Only to be helped further by our tax cut bill

will be a great year for companies and jobs. Stock market is pised for another year of success. Throwing shapes all over the place. That was Donald Trump's last three tweets. As of the 27th of December, the year of our Lord. 2017. Last week I recommended an album for ye.

Some people have been asking me to recommend the albums at the end of the podcast Last week I recommended an album for ye. Some people have been asking me to. Recommend the albums at the end of the podcast. So that ye can go and listen to them at the end of the podcast. And not three quarter way of the podcast. I don't know how I feel about that. I like putting the album recommendation in. Three quarters of the way through the podcast.

So maybe. Write the name of the album down. That I recommend now. And then you look at that. When the podcast ends. You take personal responsibility for it. Simon. Who tweeted that. Last week I recommended the album.

The Blue Album. By Jameis and JMSN which is a lovely contemporary R&B album with divine production and I hope you had a listen to that and enjoyed it this week I'd like to recommend it's another Tom Waits album

I recommended Blue Valentines by Tom Waits about 6 or 7 podcasts ago that's early Tom Waits 1973 when or seven podcasts ago. That's early Tom Waits, 1973, when he was in his jazz period. I would like to now recommend Swordfish Trombones by Tom Waits, which is a start-to-finish fantastic album.

And it's when Tom Waits went very avant-garde with his career. It's from 1980. He met a woman called Kathleen Brennan, who I think is, I think she's from Cork, or if not her, her family. And Tom Waits was listening to the music of Captain Beefheart. My fucking mouth has gone to shit.

Tom Waits was listening to Captain Beefheart, who is a bit of a gas cunt and a mad bastard and Tom really came into his own sound he developed a bizarre, violent type of sound for swordfish trombones and again he elevated songwriting to the art of the short story in this album in particular a song called Shore Leave

which is just fucking beautiful Shore Leave is amazing listen to the lyrics on that song fuck me, it is a short story start to finish, amazing Swordfish Trombones by Tom Waits give it a spin please it is time to answer some of the questions

that you ask me on Twitter at Rubber Bandits. You can also ask me questions if you want in the review section of the podcast in iTunes, because I do read those as well. Connor O'Reilly asks, Any Irish mythology that you haven't already chatted about? I absolutely love that crack. Yes,

and I'm going to tell you a story. Now most Irish people will know this story, but considering that there's 60,000 people listening from the UK and then another 20 or so odd from other parts of the world or 30,000 people listening, I can't assume that you all know about Irish mythology. So I'm going to start, I'm going to tell you the story of the Salmon of Knowledge, which is one that we all kind of know if you're Irish, but it's still a fucking great story. Earlier on, I had on the podcast, the Trout of No Crack. And the Trout of No Crack. As I mentioned. He is a brother. Of the Salmon of Knowledge.

And The Trout of No Crack is. He's a prick. He's an asshole. He's a racist. He's a loud mouth. He calls cocaine Keanu Reeves. He bench presses. He bullies people.

He's a dickhead. And he's a bit of a fool. And he made shit of. That. He had a wonderful opportunity there. He's a dickhead. And he's a bit of a fool. And he made shit of that. He had a wonderful opportunity there to represent Japanese city pop in all its beauty. And he didn't. He fucked it up. He recorded it in a phone box. And he put that 50 quid up his nose.

Or gambled it. But I will tell you the story of his brother. The Salmon of Knowledge. Which I believe is from the Fenian cycle of Irish mythology. And the story goes, there's a lad called Fionn MacCool. And there was this regular salmon knocking around a lake up north of Ireland. And there was a tree, this tree that contained a lot of wisdom in the tree it was a hazelnut tree

so the salmon anyway ate nine hazelnuts that fell into the water from this tree the salmon ate these hazelnuts so as a result of this the salmon whose name was Fintan

Fintan the salmon gained all of the world's knowledge so fast forward anyway a few years to this poet called Phinegas now Phinegas knew about this salmon Fintan who'd ate the hazelnuts and had all the world's knowledge

and Phinegas was a poet so he's like well fuck that man I want to had all the world's knowledge and Phinegas was a poet so he's like well fuck that man I want to get all the knowledge in the world because can you can you imagine the state of the poems I'd be writing if I knew everything in the world it'd be like having Wikipedia before Wikipedia so Phinegas the poet dedicated his life fishing and catching this salmon of knowledge so that he could eat Fintan the salmon and then take all the world's knowledge. So one day, Fionn MacCool decides he's going to help Finnegas catch the salmon, you know, just to be sound, because Fionn MacCool was a young lad

and he'd seen that Finnegas was seven years trying to catch this fish. So he gives him help for a couple of weeks. Then one day, Phinegas catches the fucking salmon. He can't believe it. It's like, I'm after catching the salmon knowledge. Holy fucking shit. So Phinegas, anyway, he puts the salmon on a spit over a fire, ready to cook it. Salmon's cooking away,

and Phinegas, the poet, needs to take a shit. So he fucks off into a bush to take a shit. And Fionn MacCool is left looking after the cooking salmon. While Fionn is turning the salmon over the fire, he notices that a bubble starts to form on the skin turning the salmon over the fire he notices that a bubble starts to form on the skin of the salmon. Now Fionn doesn't want the salmon

to be ruined. He doesn't want it bursting. So he sticks his thumb into this bubble, the heat bubble that formed on the fish's skin and bursts it. But it burns his thumb. And then he sucks his thumb because it was sore

and fucking Fionn MacCool ends up getting all the knowledge from Fintan the Salmon the world's knowledge goes into Fionn MacCool and not Finnegas Finnegas went fucking apeshit but eventually was quite happy

that Fionn MacCool the hero attained all the world's knowledge and then many many many many many years later we caught

well we went looking for the salmon of knowledge and ended up catching the trout of no crack instead and he's been hanging around with us

ever since being a burden on our lives now I love the story of the salmon of knowledge one of the reasons I do love it so much is that there's no evidence of that story in other cultures I told you a few weeks ago about King Sweeney

and the king with the donkey's ears that story is present in a lot of cultures but the salmon of knowledge is uniquely Irish and I what jumps up to use a pun, what jumps out of the water the most for me

about that story is that the salmon attained his knowledge from eating fucking hazelnuts like salmon don't eat, salmon don't give a shit fucking hazelnuts. Like salmon don't eat. Salmon don't give a shit about hazelnuts lads. So. Some fella was sitting down one day. Some poet or somebody who come up with this myth.

And he was obviously looking at a hazel tree. Over a river. And the salmon were obviously jumping for flies. And he assumed that the salmon were eating hazelnuts. Salmon's never gonna... When have you ever seen a salmon to give a shit about nuts? And I just thought that was brilliant, you know? That the hazelnut could give the salmon the eternal wisdom of the world.

Fair play to whoever came up with that. However many thousands of years ago as that was jennifer wilson asks cats or dogs i that's i i hate that question because i i don't i i i i hate the way we have dogs and cats in competition with each other they're both different creatures and they both have different purposes and i love dogs and cats in competition with each other they're both different creatures and they both have different purposes and i love dogs and cats equally and it breaks my heart when i compare the two it genuinely does i love them both and they have different personalities um one thing i will

say and i know i'm not even going to try compare them but I'm going to just make a few respective points the one thing I'll say about cats is that a cat is a real creature a dog is not a real creature

dogs dogs are created by human beings a dog does not exist in the wild dogs dogs have been knocking about with humans for over a hundred thousand years maybe longer okay and there's no such thing as a dog they're completely domesticated what happened is that when humans were hunter-gatherers right wolves would bring out packs of wolves because a wolf is that's a real animal wolves would hang around with humans and the friendlier wolves would involve themselves in our social circles

and they would help us hunt and some of them would hang around and you know they would defend us and the most amicable wolves basically bred with other amicable wolves until eventually a creature was created by humans called a dog and they've done this in in russia there's a type of r Russian fox where they showed over, it only took them 60 years, they got wild foxes. And they started breeding only the most amicable and friendly foxes until after about 60 years there's this new fox. And it doesn't even look like a fox anymore, it looks like a dog. Dogs' faces and their expressions have evolved to mimic human expressions. Dogs have been with us for years and years and years.

And we have moulded what they are, you know. Even, you know, there's purebred dogs and they shouldn't even exist. Poor old pugs. A pug can drown in his own spit if he falls on his face, you know. They're not really supposed to exist. Bulldogs, you know, the wrinkles on a bulldog's face, how does that happen? I'll tell you how. Because about 30,000, 40,000 years ago, no, sooner, maybe 10,000, 15,000 years ago,

sooner maybe 10 15 000 years ago when we started farming animals um a dog was bred so that he could go into a pen with a farmer and if the farmer had a randy aggressive bull this dog was resilient enough that he could grab onto the bull's nose and no matter how hard the bull shook the dog would not let go allowing the farmer to escape that turned into the bulldog the wrinkles on the face slowly evolved through breeding because the original bulldogs would grab onto a bull's nose and there would be so much blood flowing off the bull's nose that the dog could drown in the blood so they these wrinkles were evolved in their faces so that the blood would drain off and that's what a bulldog is

dogs aren't real they are domesticated animals of pleasure and I love them I love them dearly cats are a different story we were hunter gatherers for hundreds of thousands of years

cats only came only started hanging about with humans at the arrival of agriculture which isn't really that long ago maybe 50, 60 thousand years I could be off there when humans developed agriculture

that is the ability to farm it is the first time we had surplus hunter gatherers didn't have surplus they ate and found they found what they got and they ate it when humans started farming we had silos of grain for the first time we were able to make too much and when you have a silo of grain you have vermin that hangs around the village and cats started hanging around with us to get rid of the rats so cats haven't been around with us long enough to actually be fully domesticated the ancestor of the domestic cat is known as the african wild cat and if you look up photographs of the African

wild cat they are identical to what we call a house cat they haven't evolved they haven't changed they haven't maybe given another hundred thousand years and cats will evolve into something similar to what dogs are now but right now cats are still kind of they're semi-wild a cat will engage with you and it's terms only whereas a dog will be fully loyal a cat is like fuck you i'm taking the piss out of you you don't own me i own you so there's an independence in cats that i enjoy in that respect but I also love the the unconditional love and loyalty from a dog and I refuse to compare and contrast

the two, they're beautiful animals and I love them both dearly Soupy asks what's your opinion on modern hip hop i.e. mumble rap in comparison to old school, also what's your stance on Irish rap, hip hop as a whole em old school also what's your stance on irish rap hip-hop as a whole um that's a tough one you know

i love hip-hop music i've been listening to hip-hop music since i was a child i love old school hip-hop music at 90 percent of anything is going to be shit right so here's something to consider like a lot of mumble rap isn't it's not my vibe but i will always give it a chance i will never write it off just because it sounds weird and different 90 of it is going to be shit and because it's happening in the here and now you're going to be exposed to that 90 and it'll take five or six years to look back and see what the cream of the crop is but just remember old school hip hop, which we now look back on as being classic, like Public Enemy, NWA. This was seen, this was held in the same contempt that mumble rap is being held in now. And 90% of that was shit too.

It's just, it's hard to find that 90% because it just doesn't get reprinted just it's hard to find that 90% because it just doesn't get reprinted or it's hard to find on Spotify but if you look hard enough you will find the shit from the golden age of hip hop I have a general rule

any time a lot of black Americans have consensus about music historically they are always right A load of black Americans have consensus about music. Historically, they are always right. Always. So for that reason, no matter what happens in hip-hop music, I will always give it the benefit of the doubt and my ears

because history has shown that African-American culture is consistently on the ball, musically even when it's new and shocking Irish Hip Hop think that's fucking flying it at the moment it's certainly a hell of a lot better than it was 10 years ago you've got Russ Angano family

from Limerick, Hair Squid up in Dublin, fucking class Your Man Mango up in Dublin Lethal Dialect one of the best lyricists the country has ever seen, he doesn't go by Lethal Dialect up in Dublin, fucking class. Your Man Mango, up in Dublin. Lethal Dialect, one of the best lyricists the country has ever seen. He doesn't go by Lethal Dialect anymore, he's going by his own name, Paul Allwright.

And there's a rapper down here in Limerick called Dirt Davis, who's a fucking genius. So Irish hip-hop is in a good state right now. Tina Bay would like to know, what are your thoughts on ASMR autonomous sensory meridian response mostly found on YouTube via video and audio created to help relax people

or elicit other responses I fucking love ASMR if you don't know what ASMR is it's there are these weird videos on YouTube where people will whisper into a microphone or speak a certain way and certain people who listen receive kind of tingles in their brains when they hear this this podcast is very much influenced by ASMR I spent a lot of time

ASMR. I spent a lot of time perfecting the exact sound of how I might want my microphone to be to get the exact bass response out of my voice to use aural stimuli to allow you the listener to get a very relaxing experience and this to an extent is ASMR. now I don't get ASMR tingles when I listen to it, I just like the way it sounds some people get full on tingles I don't there's an ASMR channel a fella called Ephemeral Rift and I

fucking adore his videos it's like Samuel Beckett, he has elevated ASMR to incredibly absurd bizarre theater he will he's got a three hour long video of him touching a pineapple and he has the pineapple mic'd up and all you can hear is these pineapple sounds I fucking love that i love living in a world where there's a three hour video of a man touching a pineapple i like that he's got an hour and a half long video where he dresses up as a rhino and makes with a mortar and pestle he makes this weird elixir. And then you the observer are trapped in this temple of the white rhino.

And he whispers into your ear for an hour and a half about giving you an elixir. It's fucking mental. It's madness. And I just love it. It's so beautiful. And I think if Samuel Beckett was around I think he would love it. Because there's such a Beckett vibe of some of the ASMR stuff that's out there. Really mad shit.

That's some of my favourite entertainment at the moment is just I would watch an ASMR video for a fucking hour and marvel at the fact that it just exists. Nylee asks, talk about DMT. DMT, I don't know an awful amount about DMT DMT is it's a very special hallucinogenic drug and it is unique

amongst all other drugs in that it often elicits identical responses in everybody who uses it. People who use DMT are find it through ceremonies like an ayahuasca ceremony. They are transported to a world outside of reality where they meet things called elves in the machine which are often described as basketball sized objects that are glowing with jewels and they reveal to them the secrets of their life and the secrets of the universe and a buddy of mine did DMT about six months ago

and it genuinely changed his life because he had that experience while using it. It's very, very interesting. The science that's gone into looking into DMT, it's certainly, it's being treated, some people don't even call it a drug, some people believe that it's, it's like a little remote control for the quantum fabric that lies behind reality. That it's more than a drug, that it's a gateway into multiple universes.

And this is evidenced by the fact that people have the same experience. And look, I don't know enough about it, mainly because so much of the information out there about DMT is, it's kind of like conspiracy theory shit do you know when you want to learn about conspiracy theories but the only information out there is a five hour long youtube video by a lunatic so you're not going to give your time towards that there isn't uh it's hard to find concise decent DMT information out there. Would I do it? Probably not. As a result of my propensity towards anxiety I am not interested in hallucinogens of any description. I'm not

interested in any drug that would allow me to lose control over a prolonged period of time. I don't think that would go well with my anxiety. So I'd have to leave DMT off. However, I do meditate. And I have had experiences in meditation which have been transcendental. And have brought me close to a feeling of intense meaning or belonging or... Jesus, one of the I meditate I meditate um I haven't done it now in a good while because I run instead of meditating but when I was meditating I used to meditate down by a by the river the Plassey River where Yorty Ahern's couch is it's a little beachy area there at the back of UL and I used to go down there and sit down there every single day and do a 15 minute meditation

and one day after about six weeks of very intense meditation I woke up from it and the first thing that I saw was a nettle and my entire being was overcome with this incredibly intense sense of love and empathy for this nettle and it's like I truly and deeply understood at the core of my being that me and this nettle were one that we were part of some same system and it was phenomenal it was amazing an intense loving empathy for a nettle and i know that sounds insane but that's what i felt at that moment that nettle it was like i it was like the universe told me a little personal in joke like nudged me and said see you in that nettle there you're the same you and that nettle are part of a system and you know what like it it's it's not it's not wrong like that nettle that nettle breeds out carbon dioxide

or sorry that nettle i breathe carbon dioxide out of my mouth when i'm meditating and that nettle breathes in that carbon dioxide and gives oxygen out and I breathe that in so there is a holistic symbiotic relationship between me and that nettle but I felt an emotional intense empathy with it and I imagine that's what DMT is like so for me personally I'm happy sticking with the meditation for now I'm uh I don't think I need any chemical assistance but I'll quite happily listen to other people's stories about it, I find that quite interesting I just realised there that little nettle analogy

does hark back to the earlier part of the podcast where I was talking about the collectivism and holistic thinking and eastern thinking and how much on the ball they were yet there's a symbiotic relationship

between us and plants, that is a fact. They breathe in what we breathe out, and back and forth, we are one. Simple as that. You know? In my hand at the moment even, I've got a plastic pen. Plastic is nothing but the bones of dinosaurs.

Plastic comes from oil. Oil is fossil fuels. What's fossil fuels? Only dead dinosaurs. So next time you pick up a piece of plastic, even though it's a completely synthetic, man-made material, it is not possible without the bones of a stegosaurus.

It's all symbiotic. It is all, everything is related. Everything is part of a flowing system of oneness Jesus Christ that makes me sound up my own hole

alright I'll leave you off so what are we that's about what is an hour and ten minutes that's not too bad for you

please keep subscribing to the podcast and please leave some nice reviews if you enjoyed it if you're feeling generous donate money to the podcast Patreon page www.patreon.com

forward slash thebinebypodcast or not only if you want to lads, I don't mind and look after yourself for the week ahead if you have a bit of time off for Christmas enjoy it, use that time properly, no matter what way that

is and like I said earlier on with the exercise if you're becoming too vegetative at home with your time off just be aware be mindful around your own mental health around that because having too much time off can if you're used to being busy and you have a big chunk of time off that time off where you where you think you're actually using it to rest you can get a little bit of death anxiety or an existential anxiety

and it can cause you to look inward negatively because the daily grind is a distraction from the inevitable chaos of our own death all right i'll talk to you next week oh and keep asking questions. I love it when you ask me questions on Twitter, at Rubber Bandits. That was my favorite part of the podcast, answering your questions. You guys.

Rock City, you're the best fans in the league, bar none. Tickets are on sale now for Fan Appreciation Night on Saturday, April 13th, when the Toronto Rock host the Rochester Nighthawks at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton at 7.30pm. You can also lock in your playoff pack right now to guarantee the same seats for every postseason game and you'll only pay as we play. Come along for the ride and punch your ticket to Rock city at torontorock.com. Thank you. Thank you.