The music fades, the languages die, and we wait for the hard reset

Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro

We open on the aftermath of a chaotic club night — buying tickets for the wrong event, getting trapped in nosebleed sections, and realizing the entire system is a ploy to sell overpriced alcohol and squeeze value from naive attendees.

We talk about the scam of modern VIP culture, how clubs manipulate perceived scarcity, and how even when you “pay” you still get fenced off unless you're a designated big spender.

We reflect on how even Charlotte De Witte’s opener felt forced — not art for its own sake, but pure functionalism, designed to heat the room without letting it burn.

From there, we spin off into the future of language: whether English will survive as a global standard or devolve into broken offshoots like Singlish. We wonder if Mandarin’s deeper continuity gives it a survival advantage, and whether 200 years from now Victorian English will feel closer to us than whatever mutant pidgins emerge.

We dig into how the phonograph ruined music by separating sound from performance, and how modern clubbing — drowning in seas of raised smartphones — feels like an endless archive nobody will ever watch.

That leads into a bigger meditation on hoarding — from endless video archives to thousands of complaint tablets in Mesopotamia. Humans have always been obsessed with recording everything, even if most of it ends up meaningless.

We laugh about the irony of modern data storage: theoretically limitless, but fragile as hell. One Carrington Event-level solar flare and it's all gone. Maybe that's what we need: a hard reset.

Finally, we touch on decaying media, dying DVDs, the illusory safety of prepping, and how building endless bunkers of "memories" won't save anyone if there's no meaning in the first place.

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Late nights, techno dreams, and reality checkmates

Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro

We kick off in a haze of post-club morning brain fog — 9am, slightly fried, one of us just came back from a Richie Hawtin set that didn’t quite hit. The crowd was tight, the floor small, and the vibe? Not quite what we hoped. We compare that to other club experiences, how sometimes the best nights are solo, unexpected, unplanned.

From there, we slide into the weirdness of live acts vs recorded music, how Fatboy Slim once blew us away despite not being on our radar, and how live music can sometimes transcend expectations — or completely miss the mark.

We pivot into chess — how it's become an abyss of memorization and pattern grinding, especially at high levels. We talk AI’s influence on chess, how grandmasters now study with engines, and how human creativity is being shaped by machine symbiosis. Is chess still a human pursuit, or just a training ground for algorithm worship?

That spirals us into a longer meditation on AI itself. We talk GPT-style models, the echo chambers they risk creating, how people are using them as emotional crutches, even best friends. We ask: are we just training AI to reflect ourselves back in flattering ways? Where’s the challenge? Where’s the friction that helps us grow?

We explore how generative AI is being used creatively — sometimes well, often lazily. We give examples of how it helped refine motorcycle tire pressure strategies in real life — a win. But when it comes to deeper thinking or radically new perspectives? Not so much. Most people seem to stop where the summary ends.

We question whether modern AI is leading to a new kind of ritualized NPC language — especially in things like marketplace transactions and customer service. Are we heading for a world where no one actually writes anything real anymore? Just copy-paste court language?

Then we go deep on Philip K. Dick. Lasers, shared hallucinations, religious schizophrenia, and prophetic paranoia — we touch on his most insane ideas and how science fiction isn’t just about the present; it literally predicts the future. From wrist phones to social isolation, the sci-fi playbook called it decades ago.

We close with a few thoughts on parenting, screen-addicted babies, generational resilience, and how maybe, just maybe, the future isn’t doomed — but it is definitely weird.

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Zen, motorcycles, and learning through failure

Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro

In this solo episode, I (Dan) unpack a recent crash during a motorcycle track day. No injuries, but it gave me a lot to reflect on — not just in terms of technique, but in terms of how we learn, why we ride, and where we find meaning.

Here is a clip of the incident.

I walk through the structure of a typical track day, the subtle cues from the bike that help you ride better, and the rhythm that makes riding feel like dance. I share the beauty and absurdity of chasing lap times and the clarity that comes from executing perfect technique.

Then I detail the crash — how fatigue and brake fade caught up with me in the final lap. I explain what went wrong, how I responded, and how even a minor fall can shake up your mindset. There's a lesson in it — not just in riding better, but in staying calm, present, and aware.

I also reflect on motorcycles as a mindfulness tool, the way riding pulls you into the present, and how it aligns with years of meditation practice. I share thoughts on mindfulness, over-identification with thought, and how even doing the dishes can be an opportunity to wake up.

From Amanda Knox's nightmare to Sam Harris' headless insights, from living fully to finding the learning zone between comfort and chaos — this episode is one continuous monologue through adrenaline, meditation, and meaning.

Let me know if you want more solo episodes like this. Thanks for listening — ride safe, stay awake, and see you next time.

Episode Links:
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Toprak's unique riding style

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Fiction, philosophy, and chaos in practice

Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro

We kick off spring talking about Tokyo track day aggression before diving into a long-form chat with writer Rayme Michaels. We break down his seven books, from dirty screwball comedies to existential urban satire, and how philosophy sneaks into everything he writes.

We talk about Kierkegaard’s infamous seducer story and how aesthetics and ethics crash into real life. That leads us into a deep dive on Nietzsche, the will to power, Dionysian self-destruction, and whether Nietzsche cursed himself by naming his alter ego Dionysus.

Rayme shares wild autobiographical stories from his books — manic university friends, memory wipeouts from medication, revenge tales from high school bullying, and the blurry line between fiction and reality.

We end up discussing Schopenhauer, occultism, and whether philosophers were really just frustrated fiction writers. Then we spin out into Ayn Rand, libertarian socialism, banking regulation, the myth of capitalism’s romance, and how power structures want to keep magical thinking to themselves.

We also touch on hypnosis, the occult, corporate sigils, Grant Morrison comics, The Black Arts, the white/black/yellow schools of magic, Adler over Freud, and why Crowley thought Alfred Adler was the real one.

Finally, we lament the low-tier state of most content creation in Japan — clickbait reels vs. deep thinking — and shout out anyone still doing real long-form work in the shadows.

Rayme Michaels Links:
youtube.com/@raymemichaels
amazon.com/author/raymemichaels
rayme-michaels.blogspot.com
raymemichaels.tumblr.com
x.com/rayme_michaels
instagram.com/rayme_michaels
Philosophy paper

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The Death of Balanced Critique

Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro

We open by talking about grinding content creation — trying to stack up a backlog of work while burning the candle at both ends. Ideally, we want to get ahead so we aren't scrambling for contributions at 11pm while blasting black metal recorded in a bathroom.

We get into black metal vs death metal — one down-to-earth and technical, the other cosplay and aesthetics-first. We revisit Mayhem and other black metal classics, wondering if we underrated them... only to re-listen and confirm: nah, it still sucks.

That kicks off a bigger conversation about over-correcting in criticism — sometimes giving things too many chances makes them look worse. We talk about the tension between trusting your intuition vs giving art a "fair shake."

This flows into the death of real critique in legacy media. Nobody publishes sustained negative reviews anymore, especially of mainstream stuff like Taylor Swift or Kanye. We argue that there’s more value in attacking mid-level targets — artists too obscure to be protected by stan armies but big enough to reveal larger trends.

We talk about how once something gets big enough, it’s not about the art anymore — it’s about identity and belonging. At that point, critique becomes impossible. But going after lesser-known figures can actually teach you something about contemporary culture without wading through waves of death threats.

Then we get into Kanye vs P Diddy: is there even a musical difference? Or is it all the same playbook — producer, rapper, clothing line mogul. We discuss how hype machines elevate some artists above their technical abilities just through timing, connections, and spectacle.

The vibe shifts into the absurd history of black metal scandals: necrophilia jokes, dead band members turned album covers, and the bizarre legacy of Mayhem. Somehow this leads us to the Joy Division singer, the ethics of replacing frontmen, and whether notoriety helps or hurts a band's legacy.

We transition to fasting and physical states — recounting a recent multi-day fast, sauna trips, and strange bodily reactions like shivering, tears, and trauma release. We speculate whether fasting triggers some kind of ancient metabolic or emotional reset.

This naturally leads us to Japan’s strange relationship with food — how everything is adapted to Japanese taste preferences: separate textures, bland flavors, and mild everything. We complain about the lack of real Indian food in Japan, how restaurants soften everything down for Japanese palettes, and why "authenticity" barely survives in the Japanese food industry.

We wrap by clowning on Anthony Bourdain-style travel shows — how curated and artificial they feel compared to daily life in Japan. We reflect on personal integrity, resisting cringe media offers, and remind everyone: don’t kill yourself over gentle vibes.

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Cherry Blossoms, Chaos, and Casual Clothes

Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro

We kick things off with a rare solo intro, reflecting on the fleeting beauty of cherry blossoms in Japan and the eerie passage of time. The seasons change quickly, and we wonder—what exactly are we supposed to do with the short time we have?

Justin joins and we get into preparations for a recent wedding, where he had to scramble for formal wear. We question why society defaults to suits and formal wear and muse about alternative functional clothing that wouldn’t seem like a costume. Why aren’t there more practical templates for modern dress?

We touch on tourism in Japan and how the current flood of aging European tourists feels almost alien—clusters of 55+ visitors who seem out of place but persistently return. Somehow, this spirals into a discussion of Serbian war films and the psychological aftermath of war, leading us to reflect on Japan’s unresolved relationship with its own history.

Things take a turn into speculative fiction as we explore the possibility of reliable telepathy. Would a society with ESP end up with radical acceptance or a brutal witch hunt? We bring up Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man, a 1953 sci-fi novel exploring these ideas with eerie accuracy. What would society look like if thoughts could no longer be hidden?

We transition into AI and discuss how different language models exhibit distinct personalities. One model feels like a confident lawyer, while others add disclaimers to the most basic questions. We compare ChatGPT to a mid-level legal advisor and debate how AI-generated content loses individuality, becoming a bland amalgamation of consensus knowledge.

To wrap up, discuss the logistics of recording the next episode, and acknowledge that no matter how advanced society becomes, the cycle of creation and collapse is inevitable. See you next week!

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Weird Al, Hollow Earth, and the Secret Machine Under the Pyramid

Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro

We kick off reminiscing about strange musical revivals in the 1990s—Gregorian chant remixes, swing comebacks, ska explosions—and how all of that briefly pierced the mainstream before vanishing into the algorithmic abyss. That launches us into a breakdown of genre nostalgia and how post-internet fragmentation changed what "mainstream" even means.

From there, we dive into the power of parody. Weird Al comes up, naturally, but so does a lesser-known heavyweight: Norman Spinrad’s The Iron Dream—a full-length alternate-reality sci-fi novel "written" by Adolf Hitler. It’s a dangerously convincing satire of fascist tropes in classic sci-fi, so spot-on that readers could miss the joke. We ask: when does parody become indistinguishable from the real thing? And does that make it more effective or more dangerous?

We spiral from there into hollow Earth conspiracies, Richard Shaver’s bizarre post-war accounts of sadistic underground robots, and how these myths lived in sci-fi magazines before the internet became the go-to platform for fringe realities. This bleeds into early Scientology and its roots in sci-fi too—L. Ron Hubbard launching Dianetics in pulp mags and converting fellow authors into true believers.

Suddenly, we’re under the pyramids. Literally. New scan data from Giza shows complex internal shafts and mysterious corridors, possibly filled with mercury. It feels more like a machine than a tomb. We wonder: was this structure built to embody encoded mathematical truths? The alignments with Earth’s rotation are more precise than 18th-century tools could manage—how did they do it, and why?

That brings us to ancient tech: from the Antikythera mechanism (an ancient Greek analog computer) to esoteric religious machines. Were these things mystical, practical, or both? Did science, religion, and statecraft exist as one unified project?

Then we ask whether modern compartmentalization of knowledge has dulled our cultural vision. Unlike ancient civilizations, today we separate math, spirituality, and engineering. But maybe we’ve lost something. We argue that ancient minds weren’t dumber—just focused differently, and maybe with more sincerity. History isn’t a linear upgrade path. Smart people made weird decisions. Just like now.

Speaking of weird sincerity, we close out with the legend of Ned Kelly—Australia’s armor-wearing outlaw who took on colonial authorities in a metal suit. We draw comparisons to modern outlaws like the killdozer guy and explore the fine line between resistance and madness.

All that plus tangents on joke religions, Reagan-era paranoia, Australian chaos, and the religious significance of alignment-based architecture. A jam-packed episode with no easy answers—just questions, rabbit holes, and a healthy distrust of surface-level narratives.

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From Tokyo to America and Back Again: A Journey Through Madness and Meaning

Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro

We’re joined by Benjamin, who takes us through his wild journey from Japan to the U.S. and back—an odyssey fueled by artistic disillusionment, apocalyptic anxieties, and a deep desire to create something culturally relevant.

Check out The Beardsley Randomizer on Substack.

The story begins with a symbolic act: planning his escape while meditating on the Tarot Tower card, flying to L.A. on September 11th, and then to Denver on Friday the 13th. This wasn’t just a trip; it was an existential break.

In Colorado, Benjamin moved into a trailer behind a massive 60-piece performance ensemble. But instead of inspiration, he found cold nights, isolation, and a creeping realization that America wasn’t what he hoped it would be. Grappling with the decaying social fabric, he documented his descent into the unraveling of civilization.

We debate whether the U.S. is still a global artistic and intellectual force or if it's become a self-referential echo chamber, stuck 20 years behind the rest of the world. While many still critique America as if it’s the center of everything, we argue that its influence is rapidly fading, and few outside of its borders are impressed anymore.

This naturally leads us into the concept of reverse culture shock. Benjamin found that Americans weren’t interested in hearing about cultural differences. Instead, they insisted everything was "just normal." He ran into resistance whenever he tried to articulate what made Japan and the U.S. feel so fundamentally different.

From here, we spiral into broader philosophical and existential questions. What is identity? Is ego just a social interface? Benjamin describes how his early acting career shaped his understanding of self. But is that just another illusion? Is personality just a mask we wear to function?

The conversation takes a darker turn when we discuss the apocalypse—not just in a metaphorical sense, but as a real and imminent collapse. Benjamin explains why he believes we are witnessing the unraveling of social order. Economic instability, cultural entropy, and geopolitical tension are all converging into something inevitable.

Finally, we address the future and its inevitable stupidity. Justin rants about how people today are completely detached from history, confidently judging past generations while making no effort to understand them. If people in 2025 are this ignorant, how much worse will they be in 2075? What asinine takes will the next century’s intellectuals have about our time?

This episode is a chaotic but deeply engaging reflection on identity, exile, cultural shifts, and the weight of history. Let us know your thoughts—if we haven’t blackpilled you too hard.

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Crowley, Feudalism, and the Limits of Libertarianism

Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro

We start by discussing the so-called psychedelic renaissance—how for decades, serious research into psychedelics was blocked, and now suddenly, studies on LSD, DMT, and psilocybin are making a comeback. But who benefits from this shift? Is it a genuine rediscovery, or just another phase of controlled opposition?

That leads us to the broader world of underground research. We mention neuroscientists working on extended-state DMT studies, trying to keep subjects in a prolonged trip. Is this just curiosity, or are there deeper implications? Could this be another attempt to map consciousness in ways that ultimately lead back to state or corporate control?

From there, we take a detour into the realm of cult figures—Aubrey Marcus, Joe Rogan affiliates, and the archetype of the modern “spiritual entrepreneur.” Is it all just another rebranding of snake oil?

Then, we spiral into Charles Manson discourse. There’s a bizarre subset of people who claim he was misunderstood—a spiritual visionary rather than a manipulative cult leader. Was he a government psy-op? A victim of MKUltra? Or just another guy who realized that California hippies were easy to manipulate?

The conversation then moves toward the Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht. Was he a political prisoner or just a naive libertarian who thought he could outmaneuver the state? We examine the ethics of online black markets, parallel construction by law enforcement, and how Ulbricht’s story became propaganda for both ends of the spectrum.

Next, we explore the global drug trade—from Singapore’s brutal anti-drug policies to fentanyl destroying entire cities. What’s the ideal society for handling substances? Do strict laws create more crime, or does radical libertarianism inevitably lead to chaos?

We then pivot into political philosophy. If societies become too soft, do they collapse under the weight of their own comforts? We analyze Singapore as a case study in authoritarian stability, comparing it to the messier freedoms of the West. Is it better to live in a tightly controlled utopia or a chaotic democracy?

Finally, we dive into Aleister Crowley, Thelema, and the contradictions of libertarian occultism. Crowley envisioned a society where power was distributed through responsibility—those who could handle more responsibility should have more power. This is both hyper-individualist and strangely feudal. If Thelemic governance existed, would it be a form of enlightened dictatorship?

We wrap up by questioning whether freedom is something most people even want. Do people instinctively seek structure? Are we too quick to dismiss hierarchy? And what’s the actual endgame for those who claim to want a more liberated society?

This one was dense, full of weird detours, and probably controversial. Let us know what you think.

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How the CIA shaped your favorite art movement

Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro

We start with cultural penetration—not the sexual kind (yet). What does it actually mean to influence culture? Is it a grassroots process, or does it come top-down from elites? The reality, as always, is darker than we’d like to admit.

The conversation pivots to how corporations shape taste. We talk about how entertainment has changed over time, contrasting the deeply artistic, slow films of the 1970s with today’s hyper-optimized, algorithmic media. What happened? Why did mainstream culture become so safe, sterile, and soulless?

Then, we get into the CIA’s role in art movements. We break down how Cold War-era intelligence agencies manipulated culture to reinforce Western hegemony. Ever wonder why modern art suddenly became obsessed with abstract expressionism, individuality, and market-driven narratives? Turns out, that wasn’t an accident.

From there, we explore situationism and its weird connection to modern media. MTV, TikTok, and viral culture all have roots in early avant-garde movements designed to disrupt capitalism. Ironically, those same ideas were hijacked and commercialized, leading to the dopamine-fueled media cycles we have today.

The discussion then takes a political turn. We question whether modern art has become a passive collaborator in neoliberal ideology. If artists are too scared to challenge dominant narratives, does their work actually mean anything? And if movements like futurism once inspired radical political change, why does today’s art feel so toothless?

Then comes the big question: is the goal of neo-decadence to dismantle the CIA? We examine how the current global order—especially America’s cultural influence—operates as an extension of Cold War propaganda. If cultural stasis is the enemy, what does a truly radical alternative look like?

Finally, we touch on fascism, nationalism, and the failures of contemporary political thought. We break down why certain ideologies are instinctively popular and why the left has largely abandoned artistic vision in favor of ideological purity tests. If you strip away historical baggage, what makes a political system actually compelling?

It’s a heavy discussion, but if you’ve been listening this far, you probably expected that. The CIA shaped modern culture more than you think. Art is propaganda, whether we acknowledge it or not. And the biggest crime of all? Most people have stopped questioning it.

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https://neopasseism.substack.com/

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