---
title:  "paprika, evangelists at my door, and dead set"
published:  2019-05-25
---

## the evangelists thing

i was just invited to a free christian concert with complimentary drinks and hot dogs to be held at a local park. it was an odd experience, and it certainly wasn't something i was expecting but the way it all happened was pretty predictable. we chatted a bit, with antisocial **&middot;me&middot;** not knowing how to answer his questions and very self-conscious of the fact i need to brush my teeth and i hope he couldn't smell my breath. 恥ずかしいよ。

in terms of religion, i don't think i'm against *all* organised religion, but there are some aspects of many religious organisations i am either opinionated about or just find fascinating to learn about. i will likely talk more on belief systems and churches and religions because i think the whole concept is very interesting. 

this whole episode was just to be a quick aside as it had *literally just happened* as i had just begun writing this so i'm skipping to the tl;dr which is i am tempted by free food and drink and there will be music and if i'm lucky maybe a girl will be there for the same reasons as i am and when we meet we get on really well and after being really good friends for a while then well, you know, **`spooning leads to forking`** by which i mean「[＊](# "this sentence intentionally left unfinished")」

## paprika

it was almost three days ago (23日)[＊](# "i am fully aware that when i said 'almost three days ago' what i am talking about is ~two~ days ago, but it was close enough to three to warrant its phrasing imho") i asked of the kind people in my xmpp [muc for anime otaku and sympathisers](xmpp:moemoekyun@muc.pew.im?join "moemoekyun@muc.pew.im")<small>〔*edit: now points to the current address of the muc*〕</small> what a good anime to watch while you're high is, and one that came up in the resulting conversation was the anime film (you guessed it) ***paprika***, which i had heard of before then but all i really knew was that it had crazy visuals. i decided to give it a go. 

![](/images/totallyfuckedup-paprika.gif)

### results

speaking on behalf the walrus, it's a great film to watch high. the type of high will affect your understanding or lack thereof of the film, which before i started writing this blog post i had seen three times; with my lack of working inner clock it seemed like once each night even now, at which point i've seen it four times. i have not seen it sober nor do i feel so inclined. 

> **when to watch** aka **baked or wasted**

<small>[if you're interested in seeing this film and want to know what drugs i recommend for your viewing pleasure]</small>

**~name a few, rate a few~**
(1) weed: always (2) alcohol: recommended over sober (3) lsd: a blast, probably (4) ambien: in the realm of the walrus, i imagine a fun time, especially if you don't have much resistance built-up to it (5) amphetamines (meth/adderall/etc): don't recommend unless you really want to analyse it actively to figure out all there is you can instead of watching as many good anime as you can find (if you're like me, your watch list grows much faster than your completed list, after all) (6) shrooms: this could be a really interesting visual experience. (7) nothing/sober: need to be in the right kind of mood.

### i'm less sure now than when i started

i'm really torn about this film. i don't know if the film has started reminding me of **`to say nothing of the dog`** or if the experience of me watching the show is starting to. because here's the thing about the film: i felt like i was watching a totally different film every time i watched it. and the way it feels different is just like the increases of coincidences in 'to say nothing of the dog' and its layered story-telling with similar events (in-story) and parallel scenes with obscurely mirrored dialogue and actions. paprika has that kind of stuff, too. and a lot of it. 

### my biggest issue (and it's not the show's fault)

i don't speak japanese. let me rephrase:

i don't know a lot of japanese. in face, i know very little. sure, i'm learning, but the biggest issue i have in trying to understand the show is the subtitles (i couldn't find a lot of choices but i didn't really look). there is very little overlap in japanese and english when it comes to translating, and even less remains if the decision to localise is made. i have strong opinions on this whole translating/localising/subs/dubs/censorship can of worms and i'm sure in time i will post about them. i bring this up now because in this show too often have i come across something that could mean too many things in english alone.  

![](/images/paprika-sub-example.png)

## dead set

i like reading and watching things about zombies. for books i highly recommend **`the girl with all the gifts`**. the audio book version is also very well done. but that's off-topic. i'm talking about the series (viewable as a fan-made film as well) called **dead set**. it's funny and does a really good job at mocking/taking jabs at reality television. it clearly didn't have the budget of, say, **zombieland** or **hot fuzz** but the humour is still up there and the fact it's a single series with a total watching time of only about 2.5 hours means i think it's worth the watch. 

unsurprisingly, this took me way too long to write, i've barely proofread any of it, and i'm late posting it.

(temporary disclaimer: if it's written down, it doesn't make it true. i'm wrong all the time and so is everyone else. in addition, people change all the time. opinions, stances, beliefs of all sorts change way more than we realise. if i don't end up contradicting myself at some point, i'm probably not posting enough.)

> post finished 26 may 2019 06:25 utc
> name of author: 僕の名前
