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Monday, February 23, 2015




What Happens When Narcissism Gloats Exponentially and Delivers Awards to Itself for Mediocrity?
It’s Called The 87th Academy Awards… or Where did Oscar Go?
It would be fair to say that a significant number of you probably watched last night’s Academy Awards Ceremony. Since I voted for the best script, I started to watch it.  As many of you know from my previous blogs,  I picked two movies that I thought stood out from the rest of the films: “Whiplash” and the once ignored “American Sniper”. I am glad they won some awards. However, I could not watch the Oscar ceremony once the host,  Neil Patrick Harris came out in his underpants and thought that this puerile action was funny. For the most part, I have very little respect for the actors who celebrate their narcissism on a steady diet of false adoration and expansive platitudes. No two movies were more absurd both in their creation and their execution than the front runners: “Boyhood” and “Birdman”. 

As I wrote previously, “Boyhood” was a boring family saga akin to watching home movies of your most detestable family members who have nothing better to do than navel gazing. “Birdman” was another piece of cinematic farce. It was ostensibly a picture of a repulsive, faded actor played by Michael Keaton attempting a comeback. Ironically, I watched the beginning of the film when Keaton is floating in mid-air, then goes into rehearsals on a Broadway stage. The rest of the story is riddled with dialogue, drama and tension akin to free associations of one of my former lobotomized patients who had been hospitalized for a bad LSD trip. Yet, “Birdman” received numerous other awards from the Director’s, Producer’s and Screen Actor’s Guilds because it was considered a film of an unbearable length of time, shot in one take.

Now, for those you who do not know that movies are usually shot in small segments, then those segments are tethered together by a talented [in this case] or non-talented editor, “Birdman” in principle was shot without a retake or cuts.  I don’t believe that narrative. More importantly, I could care less whether the film was taken from a satellite perspective or that of a cockroach [sorry Franz Kafka], both the story and the lead character, Michael Keaton were at best boring if not completely reprehensible. I have had the misfortune of meeting Michael Keaton in Bozeman, Montana. What little interaction I had with him was both unpleasant and dismissive. I found him by personality to be just what the lead in “Birdman” was: self-involved, irrelevant and paranoid.
While watching last night’s Oscar Event,  I had feelings of tediousness, disgust and boredom throughout. Wasn’t this supposed to be entertainment?? I sense as the Hollywood movie industry becomes increasingly irrelevant to the world audience, the academy members have become more desperate in testing the borders of absurdity and narcissism. A host standing in his jockey shorts and making nonsensical pronouncements, followed by the Lady Gaga’s inappropriate tribute to a fifty year old film, “Sound Of Music” demonstrates that Hollywood is caught in the nostalgia, bereft of any convincing or worthy scripts that will engage the present or future generations into watching anything other than Netflix,Twitter, Amazon, You Tube, et. al.

I am writing what I suspect is the beginning of an obituary for the Hollywood Film Industry which was founded on the simple premise of entertaining the masses without resorting to ‘dick jokes’ or music that has been buried within the distorted cavities of nostalgia. I once again reaffirmed for myself that the nonsensical solipsistic palaver of the Hollywood presenters and ex-celebrities was very much akin to the nonsense that we, Americans hear on a daily basis from our present leaders in the White House; as well as, our self-adoring, dim-witted contenders for the Presidency.  America, it’s time to shut off the TV

We need some new forms of entertainment and leadership.  Let’s try to assess merit and achievement over self-glorification, fictional narratives and paeans to narcissism.

I believe in the following pronouncement by the great poet, William Butler Yeats:
“The best lack conviction [or taste]; while the worst are full of passionate intensity [ self-love].”  

33 comments:

  1. By looking crowd on such events it can be noted that until end of cold war, on Eurosong (yearly continental song competition), crowd were wearing smokings. From 1992. you got wild youth without job on drugs screaming. Seems that those people before 1991. suddenly died. At Oscars at least in crowd you still promotion of middle class decency, but on stage you have you have wild idiots.

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    1. This morning the mom of Kyle's companion killed with him said she was "thrilled" at the guilty verdict and that it was what "God had given her."

      Yes I can understand how her kid would have grown up to love killing.

      It appears that the guy who killed Kyle and his buddy may be the only sane person in that town.

      What is it Nietzche said about living in a crazy world?

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    2. "Insanity is a perfectly rational adjustment to living in an insane world" R.D. Lang

      "When living in an insane world show me the advantages of sanity" Niezsche

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    3. Kyle was such an extreme example of evil masquerading as virtue that I actually began the process of stalking him. If he had not been killed I might have eventually killed him myself...but wouldn't have been caught for having done it.

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    4. Lies by Chris Kyle....

      1.lied about shooting a carjacker in Texas
      2.lied about shooting 30 looters in New Orleans in 2005
      4.lied about assaulting Jesse Ventura
      5.lied about statements made by Ventura
      6.lied about his activities in Iraq
      7.and worst of all....

      LIED THAT MOST OF THE PEOPLE HE KILLED IN IRAQ WERE FIGHTERS WHEN THEY WERE NOT.

      Kyle shot and killed mostly ordinary Iraqis who were walking around when Kyle thought it would be fun to kill them.

      "The Craft"

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    5. Not to put too fine a point on it but Kyle's killer, Eddie Ray Routh, was diagnosed while hospitalized before the killing as suffering from schizophrenia.

      Evidently schizophrenia cannot be considered as a cause of insanity in the county in which this "trial" was held.

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    6. Evil people who are stupid have a habit of invariably displaying their sinister nature and bad acts.

      Kyle was adept at speaking to the media, however in his personal conversations he was a stupid and outrageous liar who fabricated yarns which could not possibly be true.

      Because of this pattern he actually thought he could get away with the story he made up regarding Jesse Ventura. He thought his SEAL buddies would back him up, and they tried, but none of their efforts held up to scrutiny.

      But the most outrageous of Kyle's displays is found in the emblem and name of his contracting company, "Craft." The name is derived from "witchcraft" and the gothic fonts and motto praising violence for violence sake, combined with the death head skull at the center....

      Well it's about as sinister and intentionally evil-doing a patch as any mind has ever imagined.

      It was pure Chris Kyle.

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    7. In the evil mind of a satan worshipper like Chris Kyle everything portrayed to others is the opposite of what it really is.

      He always had a ready reply or comeback to any question. He was always facinated by the media's morbid facination with his nature as a killer. He loved killing and knew that the public shared his affinity for it.

      But he always pretended to be the opposite. When a goolish interviewer would ask what it was like to be a record setting killer better than others Kyle's reply would be that he was "a better father than a sniper" implying that his nature was nurturing rather than lethal

      When asked what he thought about the individuals he killed he would reply that he never considered their deaths because his purpose was to save the lives of fellow Marines. His claim was that everything he did was to save lives rather than take them. Kyle claimed to be a humanitarian life safter.

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    8. The most interesting interview Kyle did was a radio program where he was confronted by Alex Jones, a guest on the show. Kyle was apologetic and humble. He stood by nothing, and was non-confrontational. When confronted with facts his guilty reaction was, "ah shucks."

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    9. sociopaths are very good (if they count that there is some danger comming from humans for breaking human artificial social concept of good and evil) to pretend that they act apon by respecting concept of good and evil... that is their biggest game... they would kill without any economical sense, criminal will kill also kill but he will do it for economy, or some for revenge (but he have some interpretation of good and evil, so he is under concept of good and evil, while their brothers sociopaths are not under any)

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    10. If it wasn't for CIA operator, I'd tell people about this site. Entertainment is subjective. Really dude, stop typing so much.

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  2. I couldn't agree more, however, I found "Birdman" fascinating if not at the very least for the way it portrayed actors, which I have no doubt is one of the closest portrayals we have seen....ever.

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    1. Thanks for reading and for your comments. 😊

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    2. They danced naked in homosexual themed effigies rebelling against the father while worshipping golden idols in spite of him. Sound familiar?

      For crying out loud Doc, you didn't get it when Broke Back Mountain swept the academy? Hey America... KILL YOUR TV!!!

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    3. Sounds a bit like one of those 'Skull and Bones' initiation ceremonies...still whatever floats their boat.

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  3. Well said Dr P, exactly why I didn't waste my time watching this Oscar BS. The ceremony is Like watching a never ending loop of Brian Williams telling "war stories". Sadly I think it says something about the state of our society that eats this crap up like it's going out of style. They are mesmerized by "tinsel town" and other "shiny objects"...but at what expense is my concern.

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  4. Even the "HOLLYWOOD SIGN" has a faithful following that has the appearance of the Haj (the trek to Mecca) only up the surrounding Hollywood hillside. So much so the neighbors are complaining, and are trying to abate this nuisance. It's idol worship.

    My advice if you want to make it in Hollywood i.e have celebrity status; make a sex film like the Hilton girl or other talentless celebrities ala Kardashians, and buy a Chihuahua as an arm accessory....then you can have the same empty lifestyles you see on TV. Sadly our society loves this stuff.

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    1. I was at the Colliseum the other day and found out an interesting fact. My Guide mentioned that of 32 fighting pairs of Gladiators normally only 2 or 3 died. I queried this as I said how trained and skilled with edged weapons they were the death rate should be much higher. She said because they had spent so much feeding and training them at the local Gladiator school death was usually an accident as they needed them as performers, so in effect they were like your pro-wrestlers hamming it up for the crowd. Whereas criminals fought to the death for the blood the crowd craved. With the Circus Maximus they certainly knew how to put on a good show. Hollywood and Sport are our equivalents (without the bread!).

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    2. Roman legionaries were product of ultimate propaganda preparation. Back than colonization by building up of military camp could work. Today when you build military camp (castrum) in Afghanistan or Iraq it is just one big target, and local can not come close and start to trade with soldiers, he would get killed by terrorist on way to camp. Problem is that you cannot get city of Newcastle one day because of that. Incentive for trader to come to camp must come how i described earlier, trader must get his free money on google to buy good and military camp must be distribution centre for goods. If trader have 1000$ of free credits on google, than he is able to kill that muslim or socialist trying to stop him.

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  5. I think one of the most honest depictions of Hollywood's emptiness came in the form of an Oscar statue I think of a gold plated Oscar posed on all 4's, snorting 2 lines of coke. A sad tribute for sure to these narcissists, reminiscent of the tragic end of the very talented actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

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  6. 2nd to this, we see girls joining Isis. The article explains how some are actually attracted to the lifestyle by its violence and "gut wrenching" beheadings that some describe as "beautiful". What a bunch of losers.

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  7. It's all like the attraction, or distraction, of the gladiators in the Roman Colliseum. It seems our society thinks it needs this for some reason to feel "whole", maybe as an escape from their own struggles and generally meaningless lives.

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    1. No one can run away from their own problems, you can run sometime, but train behind will run you over, bigger and faster... Running from propaganda is also socially unacceptable, simply because you will switch to other one. Alex Jones is dangerous for such, he proclaimes to have Ron Paul as mental daddy, but that daddy is like milk of bitch. Alex takes Ron Paul as mastermind only because he hates to have masters so he took master without fruits. That is why it is best to live by propaganda but to know why. For instance housewife watching "The View", that is ok, that is making her to spend time in house more easily. That is her job. But to live by system of Alex Jones, is good if you conect him to you or source of income but to believe every word and you are not selling freedom T-Shirts, oh my, oh my... He is most dangerous propaganda there is for young without income. Respected Dr. Pieczenik, W. Tarpley, J. Corsi, that is dream team which puts everyone back to normality. Do not like G. Celente. He should also organise obvious duels between, Tarpley vs Schiff... :) but of course, more interesting would be those less obvious. Bill Ayers was good move, Noam Chomsky was his guest once, why not again. Imagine Dr. Pieczenik in duel with Ayers. :) Alex is becoming limited, he could have not enjoy and get it that when Dr. Pieczenik nicely said to him, that USA is not guilty for Russian economic problems, that that was true. Ron Paul, Ron Paul (in other words leave me alone). Alex Jones is important public utility, he should have been nationalized and i should choose his guests.

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    2. Do not get me wrong, Alex is stil the best.

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    3. His big plus in propaganda is that he is not falling on to that Colorado drug legalisation. But he once said that mamograms are dangerous, that was way to dangerous to say. Do not go there. Vaccines bashing is good, 81% of those are made in China. GMO apples which does not rot, imagine that DNA in apple able to kill DNA of every bacteria there is around... What will do that to your own DNA. No one knows, because it is to expensive to test.

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  8. What I find interesting about these award shows is the reverence that Actors are accorded, they are so up themselves. They start to like the smell of their own...perfume. With a few spectacular exceptions they are just very lucky to have not been waiters, they may appear in a successful film by accident, then they are launched and keep reappearing. In BBC Drama especially period stuff they seem to use the same Dozen or so actors over and over again. I think you would generate more gravitas as an Actor playing the President, than actually being the President.

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  9. While we are talking about Actor's. In the UK Prez Ronald Reagan used to be a figure of fun ruthlessly parodied for his use of hair dyeing products, dementia and not knowing where he was. Actually it has come out that he had screwed most of Hollywood's leading ladies including Monroe, been a film star, then got the highest office in the land. All I can remember was that he had been close to Thatcher and that on his attempted assassination asked if any of the Surgeons were Democrats. Curiously, of course VP Bush was doing a 'drill' that day for Presidential assassination and the assassins family were coming round for dinner, or something like that. But I digress. Ron, Film Star and POTUS not a bad life is it!

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  10. Fantastic observations by both Dr p and fellow commentators! It always baffled me how films were labelled blockbusters or "unmissable" I would of thought that would be reserved for the public to determine! I'm sure I once read that even if a film critic absolutely slaughtered a film but his critique may of contained the word "good" or even unmissable! But the movie directors or whoever is responsible could actually take that word or words out of context and use them on the advertising campaign to hoodwink an unassuming public! One thing is for sure its certainly gone down the pan! I watched American sniper and it was mediocre in my opinion and believe me I watch films purely to be entertained regardless of any "truth" factor generally speaking! That's all they should be as well either a form of escapism or entertaining anything that is a true story should be just that and labelled a documentary film!! Television fairs no better I'm afraid and as I've stated before its idiot viewing for an idiot nation and we can digress as to why all day long!!! When it comes to the Oscars I'd point to George C Scott and him declining his for his coupe de theatre in the film Patton! He firmly gets my vote! Believe me we are better off keeping up with current events and not keep up with the kardashians

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  11. I was thinking about how films influence our perception of reality, I remember once being asked about what happened at the Alamo. So I recounted how the frontiersman Davey Crocket (the bloke in the song) with the funny hat and Jim Bowie inventor of the Bowie knife (or as Crocodile Dundee would have it 'this is a Knife!' Fought to the last man against 3000 Soldierly Mexicans, when they could have surrendered. Now thinking back I have no idea what if any of that was true, because I just repackaged the film with a few tit-bits. Only maybe a collector of memorabilia like Phil Collins could put me right. Maybe this is why CIA and others like to be involved in movies. The rewriting of History 'Enigma', 'Memphis Belle', Zero Dark etc will be what is remembered in the beer commercial that is in most peoples head. Reality is very fluid.

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    1. The film industry is a business where everyone is frantic to make as much money as they can. In that environment it's important to tell the public what it wants to hear instead of the truth. Film makers could care less what the truth is or if the public is misled. They're interested only in making the most money they can.

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    2. Robin Williams is a window to the public about the frantic pressures in the film business to make money. The more money he made the more he spent, the higher his debts became, and the more he owed.

      I know people in the business who have to make several huge films a year just to stay even.

      Once they get involved in that culture they have no limit to their spending and the debts they owe.

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  12. If I learned anything from Hollywood, it would be the business value of; applying public relations, as well as self promotion, of these attributes, Hollywood seems to have a monopoly.

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