Guerrillas in the Midst of a Review: Ghost in the Shell

I have very positive vibes for the Ghost in the Shell adaptation. I have felt better about it with each new video they release.

I have come to terms that no adaptation (book, comic, cartoon, anime, video game, etc) will NEVER stay 100% true to its source, big Hollywood doesn't work that way. I more enjoy and look for a devotion to having the same "feel" and look and emotion with solid casting (which I've imagined that Scarlett would be the #1 choice for Motoko for years and honestly, I am ok with that. She's very capable in action roles and has a body type that works) and also the casting of Takeshi Kitano as the Chief is fucking spot on. Perfect casting in equivalence of Patrick Stewart as Prof X.

Ghost in the Shell is a great anime to bring into Hollywood. The series (Stand Alone Complex) works on a level as a procedural police drama, regardless of cyborgs, underlying messages and the standard anime tropes, it is simply a well done cop show a la Law and Order, CSI or NYPD Blue.

Back to casting, I was hoping for Ron Perlman to land the role of Batou, which sadly he did not. I'm willing to give Pilou Asbæk a chance but I don't get the initial father like relationship feel from him partnered with Johansson, he seems a little a green and the older and much more seasoned Perlman I feel would have nailed it, but I can take that in stride.

As long it doesn't have a completely trash screenplay, I feel like this is gonna be a solid movie that can and hopefully will set the tone for more film studios to have faith in anime adaptations.

But that's just my 2 cents.

And we have no one to blame but ourselves...

Here's the rub, kids:

It's not what Trump wants to do in office that makes my blood run cold. It's not his lack of knowledge of politics or foreign policy that has me worried. It's not even his blatant misogyny and racism that trouble me.

There are pockets of supporters of Trump, large numbers even as proven by voter turnout, that are albeists, that are close minded misogynists, that are even outright bigots. There have been chants heard at Trump rallys to the tune of, "WE HATE MUSLIMS, GAYS, AND BLACKS, GIVE US OUR AMERICA BACK!"

These malignant tumors on the American population exists in large numbers and the disgusting platform Trump has run on has made them brazen, given them a leader, and a misguided sense of power and now entitlement with his subsequent win.

I have friends that voted Trump and I'm not gonna begin unfriending or arguing, but know that sentiment is what you backed. That it's ok to treat others as if their basic existence makes them lower than you. That sentiment, that idea, the thought that it is acceptable to treat anyone like less of a human being based on how they were born, that is the source of mine and many others fears.

For the last 8 years we as a people have been trying to fight for progressive change and just like that we have come to a full halt and slammed into reverse. We now are on the cusp of having a president that believes climate change was created by the Chinese. A man that has 76 open lawsuits filed against him as well as being accused of RAPING A MINOR (yet everyone of his supporters are SO QUICK to call Hillary a criminal), a man who plans on making America great yet his own business are majorly outsourced to other countries. A man who openly has put down the handicapped, woman, and a countless number of other races and creeds.

This is what you are supporting, and this is what I am fearing. A group of ignorant volatile bigots finding a common leader to help throw our society back into an age of despair.

As the rest of the world laughs at us, all I can do is remind us all is that we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Purely A Matter Of Relevance: THAT SINKING FEELING (A song for the panic and anxiety stricken)

So I've lost another amazing person last week, and instead of wasting time lamenting and being upset, they will shine through me and my art. Today, I bring you lyrics from one of my favorite tracks from Beyond Dishonor's Generations EP; That Sinking Feeling. This song touches on the anxiety and panic that can cripple us in a state of fear.

So pour one out for my brothers Matt V and Matt E, and read ahead and o can only hope my words inspire someone else to go forth into the world and create something magical.

That Sinking Feeling

Remember when your dream meant something, and then you woke up and realized it was all for naught?  So plan your next gig, your next adventure, your next orgasm... just so you know you are filling the void between the now and your endless slumber.  So smile, you could be dead already... only if you were so lucky.  But here you are now forced to exist.

Failure's not an option it's a fucking ultimatum.

There is no other choice, think about it, you didn't even choose to be born.

The panic sets in, the walls of you're psyche come crashing down... just close your eyes, and hope that ends as quickly as it started.

You can't lose control, you never had it to begin with.

We cannot escape ourselves, and I know I alone feel this torment.  The reminder this life is not yours to rule, and I know we cannot escape ourselves, I alone feel this torment.

So stop trying, and start living, because since you were born your body has been busy dying.  We cannot escape ourselves...  The reminder this life is not yours to rule, we cannot escape ourselves, and I alone feel this torment.

PURELY A MATTER OF RELEVANCE - I'M SO COOL AND I NEED TO MAKE A STATUS UPDATE TO REMIND THE WORLD HOW COOL I AM

Are you the guy who hates sports and finds it necessary to make status updates to remind everyone how much you don't care football season started?

You're the worst people.

Are you the guy who's too mature for Pokemon Go and finds it necessary to tell everyone how much of an adult you are because you don't play?

You sound like a fascist and a real fun person to be around at a party. Standing in a corner drinking an over priced and underwhelming craft beer telling anyone who will listen about the new pomade you bought for your Hitler Youth haircut.

Are you the guy who doesn't watch popular TV shows and find it necessary to remind us via social media how cool you are because "you don't follow trends."

You literally should've just made a status update that says, "I'm whiny and I need to remind everyone how much of a curmudgeon I am daily to validate my otherwise meaningless existence."

It's not that I hate you "keyboard cool guys," but let me be the one to point of how much of an actual loser you sound like when you need social media to tell the world how much of a cool guy you are. Hell, I'm no saint. I write a blog no one cares about and I try week in and week out I have talent and that my opinion is somehow more relevant than yours.

It's not. I just make it seem cooler with the use of adjectives and $0.50 words left over from high school vocabulary books. Truth be told, we're all a bunch of nerds and losers hoping that someone out there can relate.

We're all just vacant minds looking for like minded tenants to come in and stay awhile.

The thought that makes me cringe is that those cool guy culprits subconsciously are hoping that someone is as big as tool as them and will smash their like button.

Spend some more time sharing some dank memes and less time reminding me that you've never watched the Walking Dead.

Cool, you've never watched a tv show, let me go bake you a cake and style in some icing on top that reads "NO ONE CARES."

Go back under your rock of obscurity, please, my news feed needs more room for my crushes to post selfies that I can creep on. I'm the guy that has a poorly managed and even more poorly written blog, and this was purely a matter of relevance.

PURELY A MATTER OF RELEVANCE - The Problems We All Have

I've been gone a long time, kids. Like a ghost stalking the hallways of a dusty asylum, I have stayed amongst you crazies quietly from ethereal sideline.

Put me on coach, I'm ready to play. Centerfield? Fuck that, I can't run that fast or jump that high. I'm more of a middle reliever. I'm here to help carry you through to those long innings of life with some insightful humor and an inquisitive philosophy on life.

I haven't been posting from the blog because every moment I have spent writing has been spent honing and perfecting my stand up comedy routine. The blog has been a platform for me to use as a jumping point to get into doing live comedy. It will all culminate on my birthday, October 1st, where I will be roasted by my peers and perform for the first time to a live crowd. If you can attend, I highly recommend you do as to not miss the guaranteed hilarity of either a successful performance or the bombing of lifetime.

For those not lucky enough to attend such a debacle, I present to you with this week's Purely a Matter of Relevance, a written tidbit of what you will have to look forward to from my performance. Please, read and laugh (or don't lol) and leave your irrelevant opinion in the comments section of a small slice of my irrelevant comedic view of the world. Enjoy!


Problems we all have 'em, its great

My problems are my problems and no one can ever truly understand how the can infect and degrade and warp our minds. Our fragile little minds, weak fragile underachieving mass, only working at 10% of its capacity like a fucking Kardashian with cerebral palsy.

Anything, literally anything can break the mind, words can crush them. Destroy them. You're driving around having a good day and you hear a lyric from song that can fuck your whole day up.

When Jessie Spano got addicted to speed on a very special episode of Saved By The Bell, I was crushed! that shit fucked me up. A death of my favorite character on Walking Dead or Game of Thrones fucks my whole week up. I sulk around my house, devastated, calling out sick, "Like, fuck man, I'm sorry. Yeah I'm not gonna make it in. Yeah man, my brother Tyrese died, yeah I know just like T-Dog, I know it's fucked up, I know I missed last week cause my cousin Jon Snow got stabbed, it's dangerous out here, I just can't I'm sorry."

It's sad how weak our fragile little minds actually are.

And we're the only animals like this! Could you imagine a bear going through anxiety and depression? Not cause his girl left him for some other bear, cause that was months ago, she left and took half the honey, the divorce was hard on the cubs. But could you imagine him sad cause he saw something that reminded him of her.  This majestic creature, not leaving the cave for a week, sitting around in sweatpants watching daytime television, depressed about life? He finally gets up the strength to go outside, he ends up walking around the woods with his boy, lamenting haha.

"See this tree, man? This was her tree. After Stacy would shit, she rub her ass on this tree right here, you see that man? You see those stains, I can't, I can't do this, fuck man, I'm a mess."

DIPLOMA?! Who gives a shit? by Contract Killa Guerrilla

Diploma? Who Gives A Shit?

I know its late but who really cares anyway, just shut up and listen ladies and gentleman.

Its recently just passed that time of the year where seniors that either have been model students or skated along by the skin of their teeth and kindness of a few teachers have walked across the stage and received that much coveted piece of paper which is supposed to be the golden ticket to life but I really sit here and wonder to myself, what does it even matter?

As I work all day long I pass house after house that have these signs that always spouts sayings like “Here Lives A Ewing High Grad” or “2016 Lawrenceville Graduate” and anything far and wide in between. I see these signs and all I really think is how thoroughly unimpressed I am and granted me being unimpressed isn’t personal, it’s the collective feeling that I’m just putting out there for the early acknowledgement that the world is just unimpressed to put it nicely. The fact that you or someone you know graduated high school really doesn’t do anythingbeneficial for anyone aside from you and that’s only because your emotionally involved and therefore have a bias, to the rest of the country and world no one gives a shit if you got your diploma….actually scratch that because the only time anyone else gives a damn if you have a diploma is when you don’t have one which then your less than shit for not being able to get that same pointless piece of paper. Back in about any of the older generations if you had your diploma then you were set and really a leg up on about 30%-75% of your peers (obviously depending on your era) due to the fact of poverty, social and economic class, general circumstance but here in this current day and age the demand for higher qualifications has made the diploma worth less than the ink and paper its used to make because even in the older days if you didn’t have a diploma and high school education you would still be alright because most often than not you had picked up a solid trade in order to pull a good living wage to provide for your family along with the fact that the cost of living (and anything else) was way cheaper but nowadays the price of everything has doubled, tripled, quadrupled, quintupled and on and on and on blah, blah, blah but yet I still don’t even get to the point that matters. 

In this country in order to just survive you need have finished grad school just to be safe, I would’ve settled for an Associate’sdegree but with the way of the world becoming that much harder always that won’t even cut it. Bachelors is basically the new value of what the high school diploma use to be and that’s a tougher pill to swallow when you realize that if you fuck up once your screwed because there’s less leniency than there was before and less value in what you’re learning now. As of 2014 the united states education system was ranked 36th in the world when we use to be in the top 5. With an ever decreasing value in the system and the harder penalty on you for not to have the NOT value (jeez it’s about as bad as the credited value of the dollar anymore but hell at least knowledge lasts and is passed down and even still I can say money still makes the world go round). 

Far be it from me to take bitterness for the world and sprinkle that in everyone’s coffee but when I see the struggle of people trying to make ends meet because they don’t have the right pieces of paper saying they are worth more than they earn it makes me tired and all about the world and its status and with the choices of whose going to start WW3 Trump or Hilary I really just want to go to sleep forever but that’s not a beneficial way to live so really I will just continue with how life is because that change isn’t something I can facilitate so hey little Johnny & Suzy congrats on your diploma, high school was really just a popularity contest and a fashion show for you because shit if my diploma meant little then your diploma means jack now and for the future but wait you can grab some solace in the fact that every graduating class after you the value depreciates like a new car driven off the lot, lets throw a bitter party as we work our 3 jobs to not get by really :D meh who needs a merc for some odd jobs?

Stay tuned next week y’all and keep one in the chamber for me fam,

Contract Killa Guerilla aka K. Maryland

PURELY A MATTER OF RELEVANCE - I'M SO BAD WITH GOODBYES (A Open Letter To Any Woman I Have Interacted With)

Happy Monday, guerrillas!  I have left you the last two weeks, and for that I must apologize.  I spent some time house/dogsitting for friends, furthering my liver's training (some call it alcoholism, I try not to nitpick) and trying not to melt in this summer heat.

What I did accomplish during this time was a lot of thinking.  It's the one of the few things including your circulatory and respiratory systems we do involuntarily, even while sleeping.  The mind continues to wander even in your subconscious state, and over the last weeks, my brain has been writing a letter.

This is a "Dear John" letter to any and all it may concern.  I'm not saying goodbye to anyone person in particular, I am more saying goodbye to the feelings I have shared with a few.  This is me cleansing my soul of the weight of these feelings.  Over the past 10 years I have shared my mind, heart and sometimes bed with a few select people.  Some of these amazing people have been girlfriends, some have been flings.  Some might have been just a collection of amazing conversations or a collection of text, emails or other correspondence.  I don't wish to say farewell to any of you, but the mere thought of you, all of you, runs through my mind more than most would expect, and I can't let it go unaddressed for any longer.

I'm So Bad With Goodbyes

It's 3 AM Sunday evening.  Sitting on the edge of my bed, head sunk in between tired shoulders.  The scent of smoldering ash, the warm sensation of a burning cigarette diminishing in my fingertips.  The soft glow of a television screen, laugh tracks echoing throughout the room, the stacked laughter of the dead my only comfort.  The gentle hum of the air conditioner filling the space between the scripted lines and the giggling.  An allegory for my mind; as instincts of sleep and the impulses of insomnia turn my brain into a battlefield, the space between the synapses are consumed by you.

You are where my mind wonders in the dark.  The light shining beyond the veil of my apprehension.  You are where my mind drifts to in the calm sea of indifference.  The buoy balancing in the wake of my desires.  I am appalled by my own inconsistencies, but it speaks true to my ever expanding heart.  I can't get you off of my mind.  Any of you.

Its never one.  One could be managed.  One can be compartmentalized and tucked away deep in the recesses of my mind.  There are too many, so many beautiful people that have entered my life.  Too many angels that have left imprints that I can never ignore.  You all mean more to me than you would ever allow yourself to believe, and I cannot go a day without something as simple as a thought of you does not run through my mind.

It's 3 AM, and my mind wishes to remind me of every nick and scratch on the armor that my heart wears.  The girl I had a crush on in middle school.  My first girlfriend freshman year.  The girl way out of my league I urged up the courage to ask out senior year.  My prom date.  The girl from the bukkake film I starred in.

I remember them all, all of the time (especially the last one, that's an interesting memory).  I feel like that estranged friends and past loves or recent crushes think I could give a shit less and my mind wanders to the dozens of other people trying to occupy my time, but they wouldn't be more wrong.  I carry this sense of discontent that I cannot be more to more people.  This is not a farewell, but more me recognizing my feelings and vocalizing them in hopes of personal retribution.  You all mean so much to me;

• To the ex I dated, loved, lived with and tolerated, a day doesn't go by that I don't think of you.
• To the friend I had the luxury of benefiting from that aside initial apprehension, we both at some point wanted to grow into more before you decided you didn't feel the same way,  I think about you more than I wish.  
• To the rad girl too pretty and pure for this world that I could watch Star Wars with and could always make me smile, and now I must act like it I don't miss your skin, you cross my mind always.  
• The amazing friend I made over social media sites that lead to hours of late night phone conversations, I miss the sound of your voice.
• The beautiful girl from across the bridge that would hang out with me and let me awkwardly sit close to you and make fun of horror movies, I miss that time I kissed you.
• To the gypsy girl of West Philly and our date nights at the theaters, I miss your infectious smile.
• To the fling from New Hope, I miss the fun and wild times.
• The cute girl who orders that same drink when I worked the bar, your personality excited me, and I enjoyed the fun we had and miss the times since I haven't been working there as much.
• The high school friend that I always had a soft spot for, the times we spent together mean so much to me, even if I was an asshole that didn't call back, I think it about it all the time.
• The perfect one from out of state I wouldn't dare pursue, I crush on you hard, and think about it more than someone should
• My most recent ex even.  Listening to pop music now makes me think to times I sent DMs you never have nor ever will respond to.  "Hello from the other side, at least I know that I tried to tell you I'm sorry for breaking you heart."

Maybe it's more because my own heart is broken, maybe I'm an ego-maniacal vagabond with tendencies akin to a sociopath that does things of this nature in a wild guilt ridden sense of attempting to gain absolution.  Or maybe I just genuinely have an overflowing heart that inundates my world with emotions that I need to scoop out with a bucket to empty out the vessel known as my psyche before I drown in my own lament.

There are so many that I didn't list, and if any girl that is reading this has to stop and think if they fit the bill of who I am addressing, you most likely already do.  So many crushes I have on the beautiful specimens of the world.  Looking through your profile pictures and Instagram accounts.  The girl who messages me and the girl I send a message to, what does that smiley face mean?  Should I tell her I think she's pretty, should I ask her out for drinks, should I ask her what sounds she makes when she's really excited and tell her how badly I want to find out?  I'm an over thinker, I'm not sure.  My heart is on my sleeve, and I can hopelessly romanticize almost anything or any moment.

I cannot lie, some of you I harbor just the slightest bit of resentment for.  Girls who told me they loved me to two weeks later tell me they don't feel the same.  Girls who loved to hang out with me, or loved to have sex with me, but weren't okay with dating me.  You know who you are, and it sickens me that I am supposed to be the guy, the rough and tumble man in that situation.  Forced and expected to act that things like that don't bother him.  To save face in spite of his heart being stepped on.

But also the flip side of that coin, I have been the asshole that have had girls tell me they wanted to be more or could totally see themselves being in a relationship with and I stopped calling or texting back.  Or a time when I literally stopped answering my phone because I wasn't sure of the future of what we were, and as stated before, I'm so bad with goodbyes.  I am no saint in this story, I have been on both sides of this discussion; asshole guy and heartbroken loser.

Please don't confuse my words with juvenile and love struck sentiment, though.  I am an adult, and as much as I am shouting into the void, do not take these ambiguities as a VagueBook emotional farce.  I live my life, and go on everyday, I do not harp on nor let my feelings for love gone past hinder my life, nor does it create an overemotional mess that makes it impossible for me to function in relationship scenarios.  Oh, quite the contrary to be exact.  In spite of all of these feelings that pass through my mind, I have developed an understanding of my heart, and have created a way for me to enjoy the simplicity of life and love without losing who I am in the process by investing large portions of emotions into every interaction I make.  There are amazing and beautiful people everywhere, and those that I may talk too I wish nothing but happiness and contention for them all.

I want to be a friend and a person that can enjoy their time around, and frankly, yes, I would fuck your brains out, but if you're not interested, that's fantastic!  I love having friends and people to enjoy, it matters not if you want to have sex, but we're adults, if having sex is on the menu it's never something that I would turn away from..   I want to make out with almost all my friends, you beautiful fucking creatures. Those who cry about the friend zone because they feel they're owed something by giving out friendship (something that every fucking human being should give without expecting a return) are fucking children.  Shave your neck beard and man the fuck up, the friend zone doesn't exist, you're just pathetic.

I digress, this letter is me saying goodbye to the times we had, I wish that the times could continue.  In some senses they will, many of the girls mentioned previously are still good friends of mine, some don't speak to me and I can respect that.  Relationships are hard and the cloudy ambiguity of texting and all of the tone that is lost within it has made communication something of problem in today's society.  Huh, ironic how tools that help us communicate with the world at faster and faster rates also creates a schism when dealing personal communication.  Be bold, be honest, the worst people will say to you is no.  Obviously a pinch of charm, a dash a wit, and a sprinkling of rugged good looks never hurts (it works for me at least), but go out there and make connections.  Make new friends.  Fuck their brains out if that's their thing, or just share some good times over some drinks and karaoke, I don't know, whatever it is you kids enjoy these days.

To every girl I ever shared a long stare with, made laugh at a bad pun or shared an evening with.  To the ones whose hand I held, whose cheek I kissed and whose night I made, I miss you, and at 3 AM when the dust settles on the day and the dawn begins to bring anew, remember, you will be on mind.  I'm so bad with goodbyes, so I'll just say later days.

Reese Dunlap