[View Video on YouTube]

Ya, I’m a little late on covering anything considered “breaking news” here for other artists and Banksy followers. More than anything I just want to take a moment to say Banksy’s art still excites me even though I thought his stuff and art direction could possibly get old.

Point is, like every artist, he finds a new way to make his social commentary in new and creative ways. I’ve floated around a couple news sites over the last couple years following his stuff and I’m very aware of the trollish art haterz out there under the internet super-highway troll bridges. Actually the web troll comes in many forms and natures, not just the art variety… I digress… this isn’t an evolution story.

For those who “don’t get it” that’s fine; any art isn’t for everyone to “get”. If you are going to criticize something though, use rational discussion to voice your opinion. Anything otherwise doesn’t really have a place in intelligent civilized society. For those who just don’t like out-of-the-norm stuff like Banky’s, that’s also fine–that’s a valid opinion… not a criticism for the art being a piece of shit done by a gay jobless street punk. (None of which is true… as far as I know that is.)

I had a stop-over flight in London for 6 hours summer of 2007. I was determined to find and buy a Banksy book while there–and I did. Yes, I know I could have bought one here or anywhere else. But I wanted on from a London book store. I was half hoping I’d find something in my random speed-tour of London; alas, I did not. I would have settled for even a little London Banksy of my own on film.

Here are some of his latest pieces. The best part about his signature graffiti is the stenciled elements being integrated into their environments.

Anyways, I could go on forever about his other work other than the one the video depicts above. My favourite moments are the ones where he sneaks his artwork into high class museums and hangs them amongst Classical works without anyone noticing. The concept behind that art alone was enough to get a fan out of me.

To me, Banksy is a guy who encourages a redefinition of social values and conformity. This doesn’t mean I get it more than the next guy–I could totally be full of crapazoola, but that’s how art works; you take what you take from it, ponder it, maybe see the world in a different light for a little while at least. I can’t wait to see the next iteration of the mysterious Banksy!

When I started NunoXEI.com it was done in an effort to collect all my thoughts and creative ideas into one place. First and foremost I wanted an outlet that could help me document the ways my mind fractures like a hundred children in a candy store. The last month has started to shine some light on a focus point for my mental wanderings.

Thanks to a comment about NunoXEI.com’s direction over at Tim Brownson’s blog at The Discomfort Zone (ADaringAdventure.com) concerning my “randomness” the vision for this site has likely happened sooner then expected. Now, this isn’t to say I can just stop having random thoughts–that’s part of who I am, and so that will inevitably be part of what my blog will also represent.

Does Tim’s comment make me self-conscious about my site’s purpose? No, not at all. The reason is because when I collapsed all my projects down and merged them all here, my main concern was to figure out why I wanted to hold on to ANY of it. I mean I loved it all, but chasing numbers and subscribers, monetizing and marketing, all that other stuff started making it all feel like a job–and i did NOT need another job.

That being said… I’m an artist and deep down that artist voice calls out the need to be heard and to be seen and to enter the mind’s of those it wishes to entertain. That one extra random voice makes up part of who I am. For this site’s content to “be heard” it must make more of an attempt to not be a random portfolio of possibilities. It ultimately comes down to who I want to speak to. I was happy keeping it to close friends, but again, the artist in me wants to go beyond that. That struggle has pulled the roller coaster lever wantonly while I ping-ponged my head against the harness, but I do think the ride is coming to an end.

And with the end of that one ride, I’m sure I’ll eagerly chase down the next ride. That’s who I am.

Republic Domain will continue to be an outlet on a consistent basis. I’d like to re-startup “comiXtrips” as taking a break from it for about a year now has made me realize that I really do miss creating those. The reason I stopped that podcast early was because I got caught up in the pondering: Why does the internet need another guy spouting out comic related news? Isn’t there enough out there already? But I’ve come to see that the internet is full of ENOUGH of EVERYTHING and that’s never stopped independent creators from carving out their niche.

I’m going to take the time to breakdown what makes me… well… me. There are no specifics here, what there is is a pseudo-chronology of what my interests have been since I was about 8 or 9 years old.

Prehistoric Era

I was amazed at the vastness of space first. Then I became a fanboy of dinosaurs–-almost every school project for the next 7 years involved something to do with the good ol’ Thunder Lizards. I even wanted to pursue the notion of becoming a palaeontologist. Then I started watching Friends and my love for the Ross character made me realize why I shouldn’t become a palaeontologist–-unless I fancied nailing a hot chick on a stack of dino bones… I digress…

Occult Era

I turned to the supernatural during my early highschool years. I read an Occult Encyclopedia from cover to cover as a night time amusement. I even took notes. First the obvious fascination for vampires occurred–what with all the vamp culture on the rise, Buffy, Interview With a Vampire, From Dusk Till Dawn, Embraced by a Vampire (ya? What? I loved Who’s the Boss and now she was of age… and topless… I digress). Obviously this then took me to lore about the werewolf and creatures like the Lock Ness or Bigfoot. How did cultures create this phenomenon? What in REAL life made oral traditions expand on their tales?

Aliens Era

Then came X-Files (at least the first 4 seasons) and I was back into life outside this planet. I read Erich Von Daniken “Chariot of the Gods” and an assortment of conspiracy guides I downloaded from shady BBS communities and News Group forums–Oh, ya! THAT far back baby! Pre-commercial internet all the way where conspiracy theories ran rampant!

Science Era

As I entered university I explored psychology, sociology and anthropology as my electives. I studied mythology like a crack whore seeks his next hit. I connected it all to a sense of reality. I connected it to what was possible still even if it wasn’t possible before centuries ago. The mysteries of the mind, the possibility of evolution or the resurrection of extinct creatures (dinosaurs), the theoretical metaphysics, pseudophysics, uberphysics, whateverphysics; it was all on hyperdrive through a universe of dreams and wishes hopefully to become reality.

Genetic/Technology Era

This brings me to the last decade or so. Cloning, chimeras, even artificial intelligence are at scientific levels that can only open up more doors for even more possibility. DNA and stem cell research is breaking through controversial lines and the world as a whole is being handed “impossible” discoveries and breakthroughs every month, if not every week, (I can’t surf news THAT well damnit, not until they sync the net with a chip in my head… soon soon… I’ve seen the proof it’s-a-comin’!)

Current Era

That brings us to Now. I can’t be sure when it’ll be evident where NunoXEI.com is going as a personal blog, but it’ll likely start being more obvious in the next month or so. In simple terms, this blog will start documenting aspects of internet geek culture that I not only find interesting, but that also makes up a part of who I am.

Could I go into more details as to what the future holds? Sure. Will I now? No.

One thing I learned with this site is that the greatest part of discovering yourself happens during the steps it takes to follow a chosen path to a desired destination. The destination isn’t important. The red pill is.

That is who I am.

I stumbled on an article over at TheRoot.com entitled, “Will White People Riot?” This article is a response to a question asked by a white man in Memphis to a racial reconciliation group. His question was: “Would black people riot if Senator Barack Obama didn’t win the election?”

As pointed out by columnist Wendi C. Thomas, author of the above mentioned article,

Many whites still labor under the illusion that black folk act en masse and that if you ask the right one, you can get the official position of some 40 million people. If a few of us get angry, that logic allows, it must surely result in a riot.

This brings to the table a switcharoo I was quite amused by. If a question such as, “Will black people riot if Obama doesn’t win?” can be asked then how less absurd is the equally balancing question, “Will white people riot if Obama wins?”

It’s intriguing that some folks still react to the people in the world as masses of one. Indeed the very definition of “a riot” involves a mass of people being driven by a group mentality if their values, principles or objectives are comprimised (I’m not a sociologist, so perhaps there’s a better way to define what I’m trying to say, meh, no matter, you get the point I hope).

The truth however is that each person is different–some share histories, sure, and these histories by default include them in a collective. Ultimately though, releasing oneself from the constraints history allows each to have absolute control of their own destiny.

To me, it seems just as likely that if a riot DOES break out, it’ll be if Obama doesn’t win. This won’t be a color issue at all in my mind; it’ll be one of tired people who believe Obama stands for something more powerful than what is happening in the US today (or over the last 8 years).

It’s even more frightening that Obama has rallied more young people then ever before with the use of the web and social media as a device in his campaign. With young people, comes a general willingness to overreact with rebelliousness when they get denied what they want.

It’ll be interesting to see how events unfold.

Original Image (Flickr CC-By): Berts back….

Is this a conspiracy theory or actual possibility? Hal Turner hands us theoretical evidence (only theory because some of the “facts” he mentions could or could not be absolute truth… only conjecture), of an AMERO coin, minted in Denver, Colorado in preparation for the American dollar crash that’s soon to come.

This is worth a watch, but for any out there watching with US dollars stored away, please do more of your own research before making any rash decisions!

Here’s a discussion from November 2006 by CNBC. This talks about the Euro-ization of the North American Amero. Basically it took Europe 40 years to bring the Euro into adoption.

I’m going to end it with this great video that stitches a bunch–and I mean a BUNCH–of different news debates, releases, statements, news, conspiracy theory, secrecy, conjecture, possibility, etc, etc, etc. This is all a little TOO public to be secrecy. Not sure what the reality is, but if it’s false then it’s running a little too wild over the last 2 years. You be the judge.

Three years ago now I left a decent paying job in order to pursue my creative endeavors for a year. It’s not that I hated my job; I mean, it started to get irritatingly stressful, but most jobs have a level of stress, right. It’s just part of the job. Well, I wanted a year off, and I took it; for bad or for good. If you’ve ever looked at your life and though, “God, I hate what I’m doing,” or “I never have any time for myself,” then this blog post is a life-story that I hope inspires you!

When I took that year off in November 2005 I started Webtertainment.tv with two friends. We produced over 60 online videos in 4.5 months–-shows like The (original) Lowdown, The One Minute Show, Legends of Bronson, The El Chico Show and Deep Space Asinine. They were fun and they were fulfilling. Waking up in the morning to 8-12 hours of working on this stuff was a breathe of fresh air. It felt right and it felt healthy. I was doing something I loved… then the money ran out and I incurred a frightening amount of debt.

I lined up my old contacts and scrambled for work once again exactly a year later in November 2006 (as I promised I would if things went south with WTV). I was lucky enough to discover that my old job as Assistant Editor and Content Manager at TheServerSide.com and TheServerSide.NET were opening up once again and I hopped back on that train and explored my old job with new eyes. I had seen a side of the web that I was aware of but never really had the time to pursue an investigation on: Web 2.0 and “social mdiea” as it was starting to be called.

Now it’s a rare individual who ISN’T a part of some sort of online community, whether it’s vlogs (mefeedia.com), link aggregators (delicious), webcomics (comicspace.com), blogging (blogspot.com), picture collectors (flickr.com), news sites (digg.com) or social outlets (facebook.com). Signing up for RSS feeds is starting to get easier and easier for the non-internet guru to be able to click a button (hopefully connected to feedburner.com) and select from various options to receive the feed.

Republic Domain, along with most of what’s on NunoXEI.com nowadays, was created as an alternative to leaving my day job in order to do something creative online. I had ran the RD strip just past 50 strips before stopping due to family responsibilities, travel amd self-discovery necessities. I’ve redesigned the strip to allow for faster production and started re-releasing them on NunoXEI.com. I did this because I didn’t want to kill off this project. It allowed me to express my humorous side and it made ME smile, which is ultimately the most important goal.

Why re-design and re-release? When I decided during–and slightly after–this “time away” to bring all my creative projects together under one roof, it all seemed right and like the ONLY option for keeping myself focused and able to time manage more effectively between work and creative fulfillment. Since doing that I’ve been able to increase production to account for a three-time-a-week schedule and even add the new Digginshit webcomic to the fold (on a very sporadic release schedule dictated by Digg community inspiration).

I’ve come back to doing The Lowdown as well but something still doesn’t feel “fast enough” with the process that makes it efficient for me to commit to. I’ve purchased a new digital camera to start taking photos again and take advantage of Flickr more often. I got it so that it was capable of doing video that I could feed into a streaming service like Blip.TV or YouTube faster without capture time, render time, encoding time, compression time…

It just didn’t seem worth it for me–ONE guy–to have to sit through a process like that while having my attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) kick in randomly, sending me off on another creative journey. I used to HATE that aspect about me–Now I accept it and work WITH it. It all comes down to finding that zone that no longer creates frustration to occur. Frustration equates to hating the process; and if you hate the process, why are you doing it?

My final thoughts here are: If you ever feel bogged down at your job, don’t be afraid to leave it! You can always find another job.

If you end up coming back a year or more later–come back with a fresh start and a fresh look at all the old habits that frustrated you. Just be sure to make any time off a valuable addition to your life experiences–even if it DOES put you 20 grand in the hole! Suck it up and live onward, with a positive outlook and with unwavering integrity!