Truth

I finished Dexter [Spoilers]

I have finished watching Dexter, one of the most engaging fucking television shows made in recent years.  While the last four season were not on par with the first four, I still loved the whole thing.  It only took me a month or two to watch the entire series, and Jesus fucking Christ, I'm really going to fucking miss Dexter Morgan and Deb Morgan.  Never has a finale left me so distressed and wanting more so badly.  Debra is one of the best character in the fucking history of television.  The finale wasn't perfect, but I don't think it was as bad as it gets accused of being.  Maybe it is because I watched the entire show over a month and a half instead of nearly a decade, but I thought it was a fitting, tragic end to a story that could only end tragically.  I am really gonna fucking miss this show.

--------------

"You say anything more about my brother and I will kick your fucking nuts down your throat." - Debra Morgan

"My sister puts up a front so the world won't see how vulnerable she is. Me, I put up a front so the world won't see how vulnerable I'm not. I don't care who these fingertips belong to, only what my new friend out there is trying to say." - Dexter Morgan

"Ever since we were little. Don't you remember the monsters? Every time mom would turn off the lights, they'd be running all over the walls and I couldn't go to sleep 'cause I thought they were going to eat me or something. They were the shadows. You came in and explained in your dorky little voice. 'It's just the absence of light, Deb.' I don't even know why I remember that, but I do. And even then, you stayed in my room. You slept on my floor. You made me feel so fuckin' safe. You've always taken care of me. I know you're going to be a great father 'cause you've always been a great big brother." - Debra Morgan

"She's the only person in the world who loves me. I think that's nice. I don't have feeling about anything, but if I could have feelings at all, I'd have them for Deb." - Dexter Morgan

"I'll see you soon" - Debra Morgan :-(

---------------

Kansas City Film Festival

Excited to announce that a short film I directed is showing at the Kansas City Film Festival.  Though this is far from what I would consider to be "success" it is nonetheless a step in the right direction and I consider it a success because up until this point, I haven't had a film good enough to screen at a film festival.

To quote one of the greatest philosophers of our time, CM Punk: "I'm not successful BECAUSE of you ... I'm successful in SPITE of you!"  You know who you are.

Adjunct Positions = Bullshit

Article in my Alma Mater Missouri Western's news paper

Read the above link.  I've been meaning to share this article for a little while now, and I think it outlines what a heavy dose of bullshit higher education has become, for both students and teachers alike.  While the example might be more extreme in higher education institutions like this, it isn't an exclusive problem there.  It's one of the main reasons over the last two years that I've really reassessed my intentions as far as going to graduate school.  I don't want to triple my debt for two more years of training that won't increase my salary that much.  If I invest that kind of money in anything, I'll put it toward equipment.  I truely do feel sorry for all the people out there who were duped into dropping upwards of $100,000 into their education and can only get these piddley little $10-20,000 a year jobs, whether it be a growing number of English professors or my news anchor co-workers.  [EXPANDED 9/10/12] This is not to say adjunct positions are all bad, because if they bring in someone that is already working professionally, like the cinematography class at Missouri Western I heard is, then it is amazing because people who don't want to work full time as a teacher can make extra cash teaching.  It's when people get cornered into using these adjunct positions as their career that the sickness that is so present in higher education today begins to expose itself.

"Fate, the saviors of fools, little children and the ship named Enterprise"
- Commander William T. Riker, posted in reference to blog title.

Pled Vs. Pleaded

I have noticed since working at a television station during the live news broadcasts, that there has been a change from the news I remembered watching growing up.  The news anchor used to commonly say 'pled' when they talked about a plea at a court case, but now, you hear them say 'pleaded'.  Why is this?  I think it is because it makes the criminal look more guilty without saying they are guilty.  They pleaded to the judge sounds a lot worse than they pled to the judge.  Pleaded used to be the only grammatically correct version, but they are both considered by Webster to be appropriate.  Here are a couple interesting discussions online about this already:

http://boaltalk.blogspot.com/2008/02/pleaded-v-pled.html

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2006/May/28/ferguson-using-pled-and-pleaded/

Just an semantic observation I wanted to share.  Any thoughts on this?

Maybe it is the Mandala Effect?

Film Analysis: American Psycho

American Psycho: An Analysis

[1]

Who is Patrick Bateman?

I believe this is one of the central question to uncovering American Psycho, a movie which over ten years later, remains in the upper echelon of my favorite films of all time.  A film by-and-large I would classify as a character-driven. It's focus is Patrick Bateman, wonderfully portrayed by Christian Bale, whose performance drives both the Bret Easton Ellis character as well as the film.  

Patrick Bateman is directly tied to the central question of the film: who is he, and is what the film depicts his reality or just a twisted fantasy he projects outward into his notebook?  What is Bateman supposed to symbolize?  Do any of these questions ever get answered by the film, or does the director, in the end, place a mirror before us, forcing us to confront our reflection; not just our observations and experiences within the world of the film(the misenscene), nor just our own self and the host of other more profound questions which that puts forth; no, we mustn't focus upon any single thing we see looking back at us when we evaluate this film, as it is still about Patrick Bateman, but we must see at least something of what is looking back at us and recognize it as ourselves, as we do during any outstanding film.

Now, the important question, considering I, at the point of writing this, am the authorial figure creating this critique, is this: Who do I think Patrick Bateman is?  Well, to discuss Bateman, I am going to first discuss his world and what it represents.  What I think this character represents involves what Hunter Thompson began to see, during that crucial scene in Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas when he witnessed the high water mark of a beautiful revolution.  Bateman doesn't represent this high water mark so much as a tsunami that's slowly started building, it's been building since before Thompson even rode his wave to Las Vegas, and it is called Western or American Capitalism.  It will continue to feed and feed until there is no blood left to consume, and when it's all gone, it will begin to create it's own apparitions to consume just as I believe Bateman had done.  It does this, inheriently because we are all prone to this behavior, just as we inherently categorize and systematize.  I feel that Who Patrick Bateman Is, is the apex of this human nature, the high water mark of this ruthless brand of capitalism.  We are witnessing it's brutality right now, with the slow death of the stock market (though just slow in my opinion because those in control have been refusing to let it die for a century now.

"Is this the real life?

Is this just fantasy?

Caught in a landslide

No escape from reality"

I believe Bateman has both killed and fantasized of killing in the film.  Unlike the book, in which I feel that the acts were mostly real, with some fantasy tied in, in the film, the opposite occurs.  In both he killed, but in both he fantasized as well.  What does this mean?  It means that, at least through association, Bateman had tasted blood.  The blood of all the poor labor in third world countries that work for Wall Street, the blood of the poor family that can't support itself anymore because of Wall Street.  Or maybe the blood of a helpless and unsuspecting bum killed in an alley way?

-------------------------

[1] - I remember everything,

down to the sound of you shaving--
the scrape of your razor,
the dully-abrading black hair
that remained