2025 Report (three days later, when everyone has already finished)

Chronicles of a year spent trying to empty one's head without success

Yes, I know. I'm late. Everyone's already given their nice, tearful 2025 review, complete with heart emojis, "grateful" every other word, and 2026 goals written like a life coach's speech on Netflix.

Lucky them. My 2025 was different. It was the result of a chronic condition: I have so much chaos in my head that doing just one thing isn't enough for me. And looking back at the past year, I felt dizzy.

If I stop, my brain keeps spinning. So I have to create. I have to write, play music, draw, program. It's not just "productivity," it's mental survival.

This is what happens when you can't sit still for a whole year.

THE RICKYVERSE: THE ORIGIN OF DELIRIUM

The blog was born to try to bring order. Or rather, to contain the flood.

It all started from some cartoons drawn to vent the annoyance towards the “performance culture” on social media. Those people who explain how to live, how to generate revenue, how to be happy in three steps. The RickyVerse has become a place of resistance to the Algorithm. A place where I can gather my creative life without having to ask permission from Zuckerberg or TikTok. Everything that would otherwise clog up my brain's RAM ends up here. A parallel universe made of:

A) MUSIC: WHEN A BAND IS NOT ENOUGH

Music is perhaps the most cumbersome part of my chaos. In 2025, I couldn't maintain a coherent line, so I simply followed every possible direction at once.

1. Ricky Guariento (Soloist)

Here I do what I want, without compromise.
• “Lost In Flamenco”Prog-rock and Andalusian guitar. Why choose?
• “When a Rose Turns to Dust”: A dark and romantic drift.
• “26 Rails” (Part I and II)A double concept album. 13 + 13 tracks. One album was too small to contain the story.
• “The Funk of the Refrigerated Counter”: Yes, it exists. No, don’t ask me why.

2. 80 Hundred Miles

A shared project with Michiko, Michal, Nguyet, and Cody. We've thrown out:
• “Letter To Elon”: A sonorous missive for Musk.
• “Chaos King”: yes, it's actually about Him. Who else if not?

3. Cohors Petrae

The shared project was born to bring sacred music into a new language, where the Word becomes Text and Rock becomes the medium.

• “Seven Days”: Holy Week in music.
• “Natus Est”: A concept about Christmas Mass. Rock, Prog, Metal. Italian and Latin.

4. Symphonic Reverie

With Michiko On drums, we've made a splash in Germany and Northern Europe with a song that breaks all the rules of the modern music industry. Evidently, our Italian-Japanese chaos resonates well with the Teutonic order.

B) FREE THOUGHTS AND WORDS

Writing is another way to reduce background noise. I've poured all sorts of things into my blog:

• Daily reflections that were at risk of being lost.
• My dreams (often more absurd than reality).
• Stories of real life.

No editorial plan, no carefully crafted SEO strategy. Just the need to capture thoughts before they evaporate or are overwritten by new ones.

C) IAIA AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

As if my natural intelligence wasn't already messing around enough, I decided to put my artificial intelligence to the test too.

I created IAIA, my personal AI influencer, and I've spent the year experimenting with this technology.

I wanted to understand whether AI will help us or destroy us. Spoiler: I haven't figured it out yet, but just in case, I continue to use it to generate things, images, sounds. And in my own small way, I fight for the correct use of this spectacular tool. It's a creativity amplifier (and chaos) incredible.

D) IMAGES: THE LOOK AT OTHERS

There Photograph It's another of my great passions. Photographing strangers, capturing details, stealing moments. It's the visual section of the blog. Sometimes words and music don't reach where an image does. This too is a piece of the puzzle, another way to seek beauty amidst the white noise of everyday life.

E) CARTOONS: MY FACE (DRAWN)

The RickyVerse panels are the final synthesis. A comics world where the characters are inspired by my real life, transformed into lines and colors. It's the only place where I truly have the final say on everything.

2026: SPOILER ALERT (BUT NOT TOO MUCH)

I don't make life coach promises. I won't write a list of SMART goals with deadlines and KPIs.
What I can say is that the RickyVerso continues. The music continues. The AI projects continue. The cartoons continue.

And if all goes well, in 2026 we'll see some of the things sown in 2025 sprout in ways I can't even foresee yet. Maybe even... live...

But for now, that's all.
Report done. Three days later. Just the way I like it.

Happy 2026! Every man for himself!

PS: I also moved house and moved house twice… but that's another story…