Many moons ago, back in about 2004, I used to write a column for a Melbourne, Australia street-press publication called “Fresh Underground Culture Magazine” (otherwise known as FUCM). 🙂
The title of my column was “Please Spike My Drink” (PSMD) … which I guess alluded to how sick and tired I hoped many people were, with swallowing the kind of lies, banal drivel and doublespeak provided by government or their complicit mainstream-media’s Kool-Aid. PSMD generally covered any topic which I thought was kind of important or interesting at the time. It ranged widely across geopolitics, the nature (and subversion) of democracy, the “bread & games” distractions of celebrity and modern sporting contests, health and wellness in the context of a poisonous food (and “medicine”) supply, the ever-encroaching dangers of political correctness gone mad, and the ongoing “divide and conquer” subversion of society generally by those with money and power, etc.
Essentially, the goal of the column was to entertain, but at the same time inform, and moreso, to get the reader to hopefully question whatever assumptions they may have previously taken for granted as a result of their cultural conditioning. It was an irreverent, sometimes satirical, often funny, and always thought-provoking take on the issues of the day … and I very much enjoyed writing that column.
In 2008, I moved from Melbourne to the stunning pueblo of Vilcabamba, in the southern Andes of Ecuador (where I have lived happily ever since).
In February of 2012 I launched my debut novel (Roppongi) at the 20th anniversary of Mogambo, the bar I used to manage, in Tokyo, Japan. “Roppongi” was a distillation of the two years I spent working and partying in the suburb of the same name in Tokyo, and I was thrilled to see it do really well. Even now, about six years later, it is still averaging 4.4 stars on Amazon, with over 100 reviews internationally. Having both Roppongi veterans, as well as folks who’d never even heard of Roppongi before … receive the novel rapturously … has been one of my proudest and most fulfilling achievements. 🙂
Anyway, this year (2016), probably because of the sheer ludicrousness playing out in the farcical US election circus, I felt more compelled than ever, to resurrect PSMD as a blog, and thereby wrap my various rants and ramblings into a more formalised structure than simply tweeting or posting on Facebook.
For anyone interested, some of my foundational perspectives are already expressed at my website, as well as an ever-increasing (and sometimes decreasing!) list of good people and organisations who are fighting the good fight. Regardless, I thought I might use this blog to expand on a few important themes from time to time, in the context of these truly extraordinary times we are currently all living through.
You’re probably thinking, “well, there are tons of smart people putting their thoughts out there on blogs … why do we need one more blogger who thinks he knows it all?” Well, read my blog, or don’t read it … I don’t really care too much. All I can say is … I will put time, love and care into my posts … and that hopefully the end results will be worth your time. 😉
Oh, by the way, me writing this stuff is purely to organise my thoughts, educate myself and others, and hopefully just make myself feel a little better. I am not going to try to sell you anything, or really promote anything, apart from ideas, people, groups or organisations I think are useful and/or beneficial to humanity. I might make an exception to this … if I ever finish my second novel! 🙂
Anyway, I hope you enjoy my posts here at Please Spike My Drink. I thought we’d kick things off with a bang. 😉
Please Spike My Drink 