Boredom

How do you stimulate the mind when there is nothing around you to make it happen? In small towns across the U.S. they make meth labs. But what do you do when you are opposed to breaking bad? Listen to music, drink, smoke some lovely or murder someone who seems to be engaged with the hustle and bustle of life. Why should they be so thoroughly enjoying life why you sit in constant boredom? This is not a manifesto for serial killing but rather an observation of life, and what separates the average person from the serial killer. Perhaps it’s a very thin line, or perhaps not. Have you ever sat and observed people who were just having so much fun that it made you want to vomit? You ask yourself, ‘what the hell are they so happy about, is it a front?’ We all seek happiness but it is where we find it that is the most important piece of the puzzle. The consumerist nature of capitalism would have you believe that certain materialistic objects will provide the happiness you seek. That is of course only if your neighbor didn’t purchase the more expensive and recent materialistic item that is ‘hot’ at the moment.

But I am getting off topic, we are talking about boredom. So imagine the individual who does not strive for material items and does not center his life on financial gain. What does he do when he is bored? I always enjoy the crime shows where they profile a serial killer. If you really think about it all the research that has been done by the local Police and the FBI is solely focused on the serials killers that have been caught. Mommy and daddy issues as a child, neighbor’s cat in the oven, isolated and socially inept with intense obsession over certain people or ideals, is what we have come to learn about serial killers. It is always some deep seeded issue that has caused this person to take a life. Let’s consider all the unsolved murders that have piled up across the country. Perhaps it’s not always the traditional tell tells that FBI profilers contribute to their subjects. Maybe it’s the bored individual who is not satisfied by everyday life, so he takes it upon himself to provide the stimulation that he needs. But there is no pattern to his madness, only simplicity. The lives that he takes are people who are not really living at all, so humanity hasn’t really lost anything, just another mindless sheep to the slaughter. This works against traditional killer chasing, how do you profile and/or search for a person who is simply bored with life and does not show all of the symptoms of your typical serial killer?
Okay so I know what your probably thinking,: it's quite a stretch for the average Joe to go from being bored to committing murder. Understood, so lets take a look at the connection between consumerism as it applies to boredom once again. Perhaps consumerism is actually the unsung hero in this scenario, the masked individual lurking in the shadows protecting us all against the evils of boredom which lead to serial killing. Her superpowers consisting of: iphones, ipads, ipods, flat screens, SUV's, luxury sedans, boats, riding lawn mowers and all that fun stuff. How could one become bored with all of these items around to occupy their attention? Better yet how does one attain the wealth to acquire these items? Work, work, work, work. 60 hour work weeks, iphone attached to the ear like a breathing apparatus, eating on the run, lack of sleep, all to gain access to the finer things in life. Work, purchase, "enjoy" purchases= no time for boredom let alone serial killing. Thank you consumerism for keeping society safe.
OR
Maybe consumerism is the true mass murderer, killing all of the humanistic values we possess as people. After knife wielding consumerism has done its deed what's left is the overworked, stressed out, always in a hurry shell of their former self individual. The biggest victim of consumerism is human connectedness. Consumerism has consumed more lives than boredom ever will.

Fabulous West

It’s not somewhere you go, to get laid, although it can and has been known to happen on occasion. I know from experience. It’s not a place you go to shoot pool, but on any given night you might own the table. It’s not necessarily a place you go to, to get drunk but 9 out of 10 times that’s what happens. It’s not a place you go to when you’re all that angry but at the end of the night you might end up trading licks with some other patron there that night. In fact you might even wake up in a bathroom with your head split open, wallet gone, phone gone and your stuck in the hospital with 18 stitches in your scalp and turns out you won’t be leaving the hospital for 4 days because you have pneumonia. But you know what, you still keep going back. You may vomit on the bar, throw a pool cue at someone, or try and choke the bartender. You may end up in a submission game with someone on the vomit soaked carpet because you believe he stole the quarters you put on the pool table. You might even start the night out chasing after the guy that bludgeoned you over the head with a beer mug and end up fighting your own friends. Yet despite all these possible outcomes you still continue to return again and again. Why? Why allow yourself to be subjected to such possibilities? I’m sure there are 1,000's of reasons why any one person might show up on any given night. But if you really stop and think, I mean really evaluate why a person would voluntarily endure such an atmosphere, I can reach only one conclusion.

It’s not somewhere with flat screen TVs, with pay preview fights on every Saturday night. It’s not a place with young hard bodied girls serving you piss warm beer and fake smiles. It’s not a place where the latest food critic raved and/or desecrated the menu. It doesn’t serve baskets of complimentary peanuts, or have some straight out of the box trivia game where you win obscure DVDs and novelty gifts. It simply is what it is. Nothing more or nothing less. What I think is so appealing about it is familiarity. Believe me I am not lost on how cliché it sounds what with the whole cheers and everybody knows your name bit (Woody Harrelson was the bomb), but that’s what it ultimately boils down to. It’s a sort of comfort zone that you become accustomed to and learn to accept... the good and bad. While you may go out to these other places to find and experience something new, you always end up back at the same spot. It’s becomes your security blanket, it becomes home. Sure the different and new places are fun initially but eventually you realize how you’re just lost in the crowd, just another table number or some poor sap playing trivia by him as a one man team. After the unfamiliarity sets in, the bright lights fade, and the cute waitresses are now occupied with a table of 12, who happen to be the 2010 trivia reigning champs, you feel used, abused, and abandoned. So what do you do? You run home, to where there could be a fight at any moment, you could be in a fight at any moment, or you could just simply fall asleep at the bar. Anything could happen but it happens at a familiar place and for a lot of us who don’t have a place to call home, that’s all we need. That’s all we want. We just want to know there is a place to go where the door is always open, a good looking bartender who asks for nothing but for you to show up and have a seat, and we can be content with ourselves if even if it is for just a brief moment before whatever else may happen.

Peaces and Creases
TBN

Solitary

Solitary confinement is more than just a physical place. Solitary confinement comes in many forms, but one common denominator is that is most certainly involuntary with the exception of the recluse. Even the most anti-social person deep down yearns to have the ability to connect with his fellow human. Perhaps the recluse has it right; they have somehow transcended the human need to be social. Or perhaps they are the crazy loner who turns into a serial killer a la Taxi Driver; maybe it's a finer line than we would like to think. Solitary confinement is the act of leaving the mind to its own devices. Considering the complexity of the mind, confinement is not a good place. Imagine a racquet ball being thrown 100 mph in a tiny room, it would ricochet constantly back and forth for a good amount of time until it finally took its last bounce. That is what solitary confinement is for the mind; thoughts, regrets, hopes, life bouncing back and forth inside your head until there is no ricochet left and the ball takes its last bounce. What happens in the mind when the ball takes its last bounce? Peaces and Creases

Insanity

Insanity is a slow and gradual process. It doesn't happen like you see in movies or read in books. It sneaks up on you like a cold that you thought you had remedied with some cough syrup and an aspirin. It's not the result of one event like a broken shoelace. It's not the broken shoelace that drives a man mad, but a culmination of broken shoelaces that gently guides a man into insanity. There is no "snap" that occurs which makes a person insane. It's more like a roller coaster that is headed upward on the tracks right before the big drop, when you hear that click click click as you anticipate the free fall downwards. It's when the redundancy of each day makes logic of everyday life seem illogical. It's when it becomes hard to decipher between up and down, between sense and senseless. It's an ever gathering fog where sight becomes useless and all orientation is lost. This is insanity, the point in the roller coaster right before you reach the peak of the arc and plummet downwards. It's the collection of broken shoelaces that drive a man insane. Peaces and Creases

RIP Henry Chinaski

James Franco aka Alien- Well Done Sir

Let me start by saying that when I saw the preview for Spring Breakers I was intrigued, I genuinely wanted to see the movie. Before seeing the movie I read some reviews… total bloodbath; everyone absolutely despised the film. I think I read one positive review out of the whole bunch. So I thought I would throw in my two sense and set the record straight. Firstly, I liked the movie. Would I have changed a few things, sure but this movie caught me totally off guard. It was not at all what I was expecting which is why I would encourage anyone to see it. The way this movie was made ventures outside of the cookie cutter mainstream Hollywood film that we have all been inundated with. The title is somewhat misleading; this is not a film intended for the MTV crowd despite the title (there should have been a disclaimer at the start of the film).

The movie is basically about a group of girls who go do the whole spring break party adventure thing when things take an abrupt turn and they end up being introduced to the underbelly of St. Pete's Beach, Florida where James Franco acts as tour guide. The girls 'get more than they bargained for' as it is often put. The biggest complaints, and compliments for that matter, of the movie that I read focused around the egregious amount of T&A. In this sense the title is not at all misleading; it's a film entitled Spring Breakers, what did you expect? If you actually paid attention to the movie you hardly notice the T&A. The flagrant display of female nudity I saw as more of a side note if anything, only added to get the attention of teenage dudes. That being said, aside from Gucci Mane (why do movie makers continue to use rappers as actors when clearly they can’t act? I didn’t know it was Gucci Mane as I was watching the movie but I kept thinking this dude is terrible he must be a rapper, and low and behold. off the top of my head Mos Def is the only serious rapper I can think of who can actually act), the acting was great. I don’t know who any of those girls were but they held their own. However, James Franco carried this movie. No Franco, no movie. You actually forget you are watching James Franco (I know this sounds silly but see the movie and you will see what I’m talking about) until the credits roll and you’re like ‘oh yea, that was James Franco’. Some of the reviews I read bashed on Franco for taking this roll but I applaud him. It’s not a roll you would except to see him in and I think that’s part of the reason he chose to play it. It was a challenge and he knocked it out of the park. Franco got range. Overall the makers of this movie took a chance in making it. I don’t know if it paid off or not, monetarily wise, but if you want to see something outside of the Hollywood slop box, you should check it out. Peaces and Creases

How do people miss the bus?

Why is the concept of humanity such a hard idea to grasp for certain individuals? As a fellow human I find this issue very perplexing, especially considering I have studied the concept of humanity at the graduate level. Disclaimer: I haven't always been the best human in my past, however I do feel there is a learning curve that most people get a handle on by the time they are old enough to be out in the world on their own. Yet there still seems to be those out there that feel they are above the accountability of their own actions. This may be acceptable from the ages 2-5 years old, but beyond that you should not act in such a self-centered irresponsible manner. We all have to live on this planet together, so why not be a mature adult and act accordingly. This isn't a hard concept to grasp. If it gives you warm and fuzzies inside to mistreat a fellow human, well then this particular message isn't for you. You most likely need to be locked in a medical facility where you are unable to interact with the rest of us who don't find it amusing to treat others without the dignity and respect they deserve. If you are unable to empathize and or forgive another person who has wronged you, you should share a room with the person I just mentioned. There is not day in grade school that you can claim to have missed to justify you being an inconsiderate asshole. Life is the classroom. If you have made past the age of 16 you have had plenty of time to recognize the arc of the learning curve in regards of being a reasonable human. If you have not caught sight or are unable to be a part of that curve, well I've already expressed where you belong. Certainly not with the rest of us who want to see their brothers and sisters do well, and in turn, want the same for the rest.

Ultimately this post is about perspective and the human condition. If you believe that humans are inherently bad or evil than you should have stopped reading at ‘why is the concept of humanity such a hard idea to grasp for certain individuals’? I was recently wronged by an individual which was a very sobering experience which inspired this post. It reminded me that we are not all on the same bus. That bus which only makes stops for the passengers who do want to see their fellow passengers get to their destination. It's easy to forget that there are those whose miss this bus. Beware; it is hard to recognize those in the crowd who did not have the fare to get on the proper bus. Pieces and creases