An Independant Declaration

A few years back a friend of mine was shot in the chest just for walking in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was a Marine and he was good at what he did. So good in fact that he served three tours in Iraq before he came home, only to die within five miles of the place he called home in the country that he was willing to die to protect. After I left Army ROTC he had asked me if it had been because I had stopped believing in what we as soldiers were being asked to do. At the time of course my answer was no but now I have to wonder if that is still true.

I look back on the past few years at everything I have done and everyone that I have met. I see the causes that I have rallied to and the society that has been raised up around me. It is with a heavy and longing heart that I revise my previous answer. I have stopped believing in what our soldiers are asked to do. Not because I believe the war is wrong or because I think the soldiers who put their lives on the line are wrong but because I believe that this society and the people who live in it are no longer worth their protection.

Long gone are the days when values like honor, dignity and loyalty were the currency of the realm. Today if something doesn’t have the possibility to bring fame or fortune it isn’t worth the energy it takes to turn away from it. This egotistical mentality that has been adopted by the vast majority of mankind is nothing but a slap in the face of every soldier worldwide.

Everyday there is another politician who thinks they know what’s best for this country making decisions that serve their own agendas. Whether their names are Bush, Pelosi, Cheney or Obama they are all the same. The worst part about it is that they have the general population of this country so cowed that there is no one to stand against them and those who would stand up to face them have their own agendas or are too insignificant to have any effect.

What happened to the democracy that this country was built on? What happened to the people choosing what was right for them? That option doesn’t exist anymore. There are no politicians who support the will of the people that they were elected to serve and I am not even sure that the people have any will left. Everyday it gets worse. We are inundated with media that is specifically engineered to terrify anyone who pays attention and lull the rest into a mind numbing ignorance. Between half-truths, lies and omissions today’s news media simply don’t do anything to allow the people the knowledge they need to control the manner in which their country is controlled. All for the sake of selling more newspapers, getting more website hits and making new viewers. And it is all for the sake of money.

So what happened to honor, dignity, loyalty and all of the values that those who built this country held so dear? Has it been too long since we last remembered that freedom isn’t free? Have we become so desensitized that all we care about are meager acts that only serve to supply a few with meaningless glory that they have no claim to? I remember a group of traitorous people who decided to stand up against the needs of one man and declared:

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”[1]

When these words once again mean something to the people of this country then maybe we will once again be worthy of the protection and sacrifice of our brothers and sisters who volunteer their lives in service to a country who has forgotten what it is like without them. I only pray that we remember soon before the damage we have done to our great nation becomes irreversible.

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[1] Excerpt from The Declaration of Independence. July 4, 1776

A Repo Man's Musing on Repo Men

Most of you know me but for those of you who don’t I will elaborate upon my nomenclature. My name is Brendan Murphy and I have been a Repo Man since September of 2008. That was when I first donned my homemade mask and picked up a scalpel to sing my way through the world of GeneCo and The Genetic Opera. Since then I have traveled from New York City to Boston, Mass., and Greenbelt, Maryland; from Rutherford, New Jersey to Toledo, Ohio and Los Angeles. I’ve had long conversations about Repo with Terrence Zdunich, Darren Smith, Darren Bousman and even Joe Motherfucking Bishara. I’ve been a member of three shadowcasts and an active Repo Army member, so much so that I’m past the point of broke because of the dedication I put in to making sure that Repo! The Genetic Opera reaches its full potential and gets the public attention that it deserves and has earned.

Aside from my involvement in the Repo Army I style myself a freelance writer. I’m the process of writing a few short stories and one extraordinarily long one. I’ve also studied film, literature, history and sociology. I say all of this not in order to toot my own horn but to explain my credentials before I delve into my critique of Repo Men because I feel like these credentials may lend it some credence instead of just being the ramblings of a die hard fan. With that I shall begin.

Let me make one thing clear, I am not a fan of idea theft or plagiarism in any way, shape or form and anyone who calls themselves a writer and yet still plagiarizes or abides plagiarism should be burned at the stake. That being said, saying that Eric Garcia (author of Repossession Mambo) committed idea theft from Repo Opera is an appalling insult to the Opera and all of its fans and creators. Mr. Garcia is nothing but a second rate author who should go back to writing for the “Weekly World News”, as I’m sure Bat Boy misses him.

The script was like a bad joke, full of meaningless banter spoken in hushed and serious tones to try and give it an air of deep philosophical meaning. That plan was foiled and this time its failure had nothing to do with those meddling kids or their stupid dog. There is no excuse for poor writing and there is no excuse for making a bad movie out of poor writing. Universal Pictures, I thought you would have learned that lesson from Waterworld. That was poorly written and just all around bad and I LIKED THAT MOVIE. My father taught me when I was young that can’t put lipstick on a pig and call it a woman; it’s still just a pig. I’m waiting for the day that Hollywood learns that but if movies like Repo Men keep coming out I think I’ll have a long time to wait. So listening to the back and forth banter between Remy (Jude Law) and Jake (Forest Whittaker) was simply mind numbing. Jake’s undying mantra of “A job is a job,” isn’t only a cliché sack of horseshit but it makes the end of the movie completely unbelievable. It detracts from the best fight scenes and most amusing part of the movie. Basically with five small words they turned the last forty-five minutes into just buffer time before they roll the credits and that’s forty-five minutes I could have spent waxing my back or listening to nails scratching a chalk board. I don’t think I can honestly say enough bad things about the script. Now I haven’t read the book and I will agree with anyone who says that movies adapted from books are usually awful but if the director has half a brain then it can at least turn out decent. This is not the case for Repo Men. No, instead they gave the movie to a director who never directed anything that anyone has ever heard of. Sure he was the coffee guy for the art department of Trainspotting that must mean he can direct! WRONG. So call me insensitive, call me a prick, this is my don’t care face. I’m tired of second rate writers producing third rate books that get turned into shitty movies directed by people who should go back to running coffee. Hey, Mr. Largo, I’ve got a new gofer for you and his name is Miguel Sapochnik.

So let me ask you, if you’ve just written a book that is going to be turned into a major movie and they hand you the script would you cut out most of your book in the interest of giving Jude Law more screen time? Answer: Fuck No! You put as much as you can into it and only cut the filler stuff out. Garcia made this world on paper and was given the chance to show it on screen and he shit the bed. The allusions to a war that is never explained, the ten seconds of not explaining what Q is and no reasoning why the whole world now needs organ transplants are just a few of the short comings of Repo Men. It was too much like the 1995 incarnation of Brave New World where they left out too much of the cynical undertone and put in place a more hopeful and light hearted feel. Take away the emotion of the written word and all you have left is Repo Men. An emotionless and pedantic film that thought it could but really couldn’t, the little engine is rolling in his grave.

I have to at least try and say something nice about this film; after all there are always two sides to every coin. Unfortunately when I try to think of a good thing the only two words that come to mind are Jude and Law. He may have had a shitty script and lacking co-stars but I have to admit that the man showed class and how good of an actor he really is. He breathed life into an otherwise flat and broken character and he did it well. Remy was still an awful character but that’s just because Jude Law isn’t a miracle worker.

Back to the bad, I’m gonna do a quick rundown of the rest of the movie. The setting was too illogically put together to be believable. Dark urban one second and the next it’s a bright suburb with no transition in between. It was too awkwardly edited. The antagonist was The Union, an evil company providing artificial organs for exorbitant prices. While the comparison to GeneCo is uncanny there is a huge flaw in the dynamic of The Union as an entity. The Union has no reason. There is never an explanation for The Union’s existence. No outbreak of organ failures, no pandemic, just nothingness. It’s just something that would have been nice to know so that someone other than Eric Garcia could understand what was going on. At least with GeneCo they made it well known that there was an epidemic of organ failures that facilitated the necessity of GeneCo. Another thing that bothered me was the completely arbitrary love story that just so happened to be one of the most patchwork love stories that I’ve ever seen. It must have been an afterthought by the studio just because they wanted Jude Law to have some steamy scenes while cutting his lover open. It was just disgustingly unnecessary.

I can’t say that I know too much about the making of movies. Obviously I don’t because I’ve disagreed with the creation of dozens of movies that ruin the books they were based off of. One thing I do know though is story and plot lines. Hollywood has a tendency to recycle plot lines with a frequency so surprising that they must not think we’re going to notice. A remake of Repo! The Genetic Opera was inevitable, the fact that it just so happened to be less than a year after the original release is just a blatant insult. I’m not going to go into the differences or similarities between Repo Opera and Repo Men. This critique isn’t about that, the points are too obvious, this about yet another cookie-cutter movie being thrown through Hollywood and into the eyes of a public that is too tired to fight it anymore. The only thing I can really say is that Repo Men was an awful movie. The rest of the words are just fluff in order to make this an enjoyable thing to read. You want to know why Repo Men was a really bad movie, go and see it. I found it online because I wasn’t about to pay for it. It kept me occupied at work for two hours and I still wish that I was busy enough there that I didn’t have the time to watch it. When Hollywood starts putting out original movies and stops stealing the thoughts and idea of everyone else then I may regain faith in the movie industry. Until then I wipe my hands of the bullshit that is Hollywood and Repo Men.

A Short Story

It was raining. Of course, it had to be raining, that just completed the horrible cliché. Not just any rain but a steady downpour. Add that to the fact that every song on the radio just had to be a love song. He pushed the seek button on the radio in hopes that somewhere there was a radio DJ that was not falling in love, or in the middle of a break up, or longing for a love that he had long since lost.

The next station came in clear and he groaned. Tears began to form in his eyes as the chorus came around, “Take my hand, take my whole life too, ‘cause I can’t help falling in love with you.” He gave the radio a swift punch and it silenced itself while the traffic light up ahead of him turned red and the car glided to a stop.

He stared straight ahead through his windshield wipers and the heavy downpour while the events of the night, still fresh and clear in his head, played out once more in front of him and he knew that he would not forget this night for a long time to come. Then again, he could never and would never be able to bring himself to completely forget. The memories kept flooding back to him, two years of happy memories gone in one hour of stupidity. A searing pain shot into his chest and what felt like an icy ball of lead dropped into his stomach as something began to swell up in his throat. A single tear rolled down the right side of his face, his soft eyes filled themselves to the brim with tears that were ready to be let go at any moment.

The traffic light turned green and his head fell to the steering wheel. He was crying. No, not crying but weeping, sobbing, bawling, sniveling. If he could cry any harder he would have and his eyes may have rolled down his cheeks with the rest of the tears. He tried to form words, tried to talk it out with dashboard. He needed to find an answer, some way to explain why he had done what he had done, but all he could do was cry. How could I have been so stupid!? He thought to himself, I got too drunk and I screwed things up, again! The tears began to flow harder and faster now. The traffic light turned red again.

He reached towards his right hand, his eyes still clenched and tears still issuing from them. He grasped a ring and, sliding it off from his ring finger he brought it up to look at in the gleam from the traffic light. The red light glinted off of the gold band, it was a Claddagh ring. A tear dripped from his chin onto the ring and he slid it back on his finger, upside down. He thought that if she would never take him back, and even if he never loved another woman again he would keep it upside down. His heart would belong to her forever and the traffic light turned green.

His head rested back on the steering wheel and he began to cry again, and he never saw the car pull up behind him. After a few seconds of the car stopped behind him red and blue lights began to flash and a siren wail woke him out of his depressed daze. He slammed the car into park and turned the engine off.

It was still pouring and I was hesitant to get out of the patrol car to see what this kid was doing in the middle of the road at this time of night stopped at a green light. Yet curiosity had a habit of doing something to peak my interest and that something persuaded me that there was more to this scene than met the eye so I slowly got out and tapped on the window of the car. The kid driving was startled by this and clumsily pawed for the hand crank to get the window down. He had to have been drunk, his eyes had that glossy, bloodshot look to them and his face was pale like he’d been throwing up something awful before I got there.

“You alright, son? You look like you’ve had a rough night.” The poor kid nodded his head but didn’t make a sound. It was as if there was something, probably the booze, which was keeping him from forming words. “You wanna step out of the car for me,” was the next thing I said to him even though I had a sinking feeling that he might get sick again if he stood, but he slowly started to get out nonetheless. He fumbled with the seatbelt and as soon as he stood up I could see how week he really was. He could barely stand, holding on to the roof of the car like his life depended on it.

I looked him over real good, top to bottom. He looked like any number of kids that I had arrested for any number of crimes or someone’s son that begged me not to call his parents when he got a speeding ticket. He could have even been my own son, if I had one that is. “You’ve been drinking tonight, haven’t you?” He nodded, “And you know that driving drunk is a very serious offense in the State of New York, not to mention how dangerous it is?” He nodded again. I could see the tears welling up in his eyes and for some reason I pitied this kid even when I had arrested many a drunk driver already in my short time as a cop on this patrol. I said, “Now don’t cry kid, it’s not the end of the world. You’re still alive, you haven’t killed anyone, you should be thankful for that,” but it didn’t work, he started crying harder. “Look, kid, I’m gonna pull your car over to the curb here you go sit in the patrol car and we’ll have a little talk.”

What the hell am I doing?! I began wondering to myself what was motivating me to give this kid a break. Did he not break the law? Couldn’t he have killed someone? Couldn’t he have killed me if I had been in the wrong place and the wrong time? I couldn’t put my finger on it but something compelled me that this was the right thing to do for this kid. Maybe a long talk and some time to sober up was all this kid needed, not jail time.

I pulled his car to the side just past the stop light. The rain was coming down as hard as ever now, I could barely see a foot in front of my face and it was slowly getting worse as I walked back to my car. Getting in, I flipped of the flashers and pulled to the side right behind the kid’s car. “So, what went wrong tonight? Wha—,” the kid cut me off, it was the first thing he’d said since I found him.

“Everything!” He croaked and, trying to hold back the tears told me the story. “My ex-girlfriend showed up to this party that we were at and I started hitting on her and kissing her right in front of my girlfriend. I was so drunk that I couldn’t help myself or tell who was who. So, my gets pissed off at me, slaps me and leaves with her scumbag of an ex-boyfriend, who I didn’t even know was there and I –,“ he stopped and his head fell into his hand he began crying so hard that little tear drips began to fall the floor of the patrol car. “I don’t know what to do,” he moaned.

I was taken so aback by this that my jaw dropped, hit the floor and bounced back up to bite my tongue. I had no idea what to say even though I’ve been in this situation many times but only from this kid’s point of view, not from an outsider’s. So I said the first thing that came to mind, which is also the only thing that I thought I could say, “Look, kid, we all make mistakes and sometimes they just happen to make a girl leave you, but you have to remember that there’s so many girls out there that beating yourself up over one of them is not worth it. You’ll always be able to find another girl.” I couldn’t really believe that those words had just come out of my mouth. I can remember being his position and those words were exactly the last words that I had wanted to hear from anybody, especially not the one person I had entrusted my fate to.

I should have just kept my mouth shut. Hand me that can opener, I’ve got a can of worms here that I’m just dying to pry open. In the academy they try to teach you how not to get involved in the personal issues of civilians unless it is in the process of defusing a possibly dangerous situation. Unfortunately for me, my instructors failed to mention that sometimes you just can’t help it; you just walk right into it.

“No, you don’t understand. This girl is my whole life. For two years I have poured my heart and soul into making her happy and caring for her. She’s the only girlfriend I’ve had that hasn’t cheated on me or left me for my best friend or played mind games with me. She was always honest about everything. She is with out a doubt the most amazing girl that I have ever met, or will ever meet,” he stifled back another tear. “She’s beautiful, smart, kind, loving. She was the girl of my dreams, and I messed up so bad that I’ll never be able to get her back!” He started to cry again and right then I understood perfectly. I knew the exact feeling that was ripping this poor kid apart. The feeling like someone just reached inside of you and grabbed your heart and ripped it from your chest. I knew then exactly what I should do.

I turned to face the kid in the back seat. I looked him over real good once more; he had broken down a lot worse since I first saw him. “Hey kid, look at me. I’m not a perfect man, hell I’m far from it. I’ve made some mistakes in my life too, but I don’t regret a single one of them,” the kid looked up at me as if I was just about to answer the most important question in his life. “You can never regret the mistakes you’ve made in your life. If you do, if you sit around questioning every mistake you’ve ever made you’ll never be happy and you’ll start second guessing yourself and whatever chance at being happy that you once had will be gone forever.” He looked back down into the floor as if I answered every question in the world except for the one that he needed to find an answer for. This kid was gonna do something stupid if I didn’t think of some way to help him out. I knew what to say.

“Alright, I’m gonna tell you a story. It’s about this young kid who made a very stupid mistake early on in life and was never able to live it down. I’m not gonna say what he did but just know that it’s one of those things that are not easily forgiven even if he had the chance to apologize. Anyway, after this kid made his mistake he regretted it for a long time and that caused him to run away from everything and everyone that he ever cared about. He got older and one day he woke up in a dead-end job and realized that he had made so many horrible mistakes that he never thought he could ever possibly make what he had done right.

“So he cut himself off from the rest of the world. He rarely left his house and spent most of his time writing stories about life and love, each one being a part of his own life that he tried to work out on paper so he could work it out in reality. And it never worked because he could never figure out how to end his stories. But then again, life usually has a way of balancing itself out and he slowly worked his way back into the real world. He got a bad job at a small office retail store and one by one he managed to regain his friends and did his best to forget the events of his past, which never works but it was an admirable attempt.” The kid was finally sitting upright and he had stopped crying. He was now listening intently on my story.

“So one day a friend of his walks into the store to visit him. Well, this friend brought along with her the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. I can’t really say for certain what happened between the guy and this very beautiful friend of a friend mainly because I myself have pretty much no idea what happened. Maybe they started talking and his eyes met her eyes, or maybe it was the way she smiled and giggled at his stupid jokes. Whatever the reason may be it just so happened that this girl, a girl whom he had never seen before, made him forget all of his problems and every mistake he had ever made. Hence, the guy fell into the deepest kind of love with this girl that he had just met. So you see kid, life isn’t always gonna go your way but you need to wait it out and see what fortunes come your way before you go off and start doing something stupid like driving drunk.” I gave him a quick nod and a smile and turned back around to see that my windshield was still being pelted, heavier than ever, by a torrential downpour. I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to divulge any more of that story to the kid. It was still a pretty touchy subject with me and never liked reminiscing about. Hopefully something that I had said in there would have given him good enough cause to continue on his life. No such luck was to be had by me.

“So what happened to them?” I turned back around as if I was surprised at the question. I didn’t really think the kid was all that drunk anymore but I didn’t think he would have comprehended that entire story.

“What? What happened to who?”

“The guy and the girl, what happened to them? Did she fall in love him too?” I couldn’t believe that the kid was worried about whether or not she loved him back. What did it matter to him? He didn’t know who I was talking about, so what was the difference? I guess in the end I realized that I really had nothing to fear by telling him the rest of the story. Maybe it would help him out if he heard the rest.

“Not right away. It turned out that this particular girl had a few demons in her past as well. She had her heart broken too many times by scumbags and guys who never really cared about her and she wouldn’t entrust her heart to anyone too quickly. So the guy worked on it. He opened his heart to her and told her of the things he had done and of the sorrows that he felt. He spent a long time trying to gain her trust and he spent an even longer time after that trying to show her how much he really loved her. He would do anything and everything in order to gain her trust and to become close to her but when the fatal moment arrived. When he had plucked up enough courage to ask her to be his girlfriend, she turned him down. She was still too heartbroken and too hurt to take that step.” I heard the kid give a sigh and without letting up I continued the story.

“But this guy never gave up on her. I don’t know whether it was stupidity, or insanity or what, but he spent almost six months trying to win her love and he never gave up and I think that is one of the reasons why he loved her so much, because she made him work for it. It’s kinda like what Andreas Capellanus had written down in his book,” at the sound of the name I saw the kid’s eyebrow rise. Apparently no one in this day and age knows who Andreas Capellanus was. “Well, anyway, he wrote that love easily won is easily lost and love won at great cost is easier to hold on to, or something to that effect. But after those six months, and even a little longer after that of continuously trying and doing whatever he thought would prove his love to her, they had finally found themselves in each other’s arms and as happy as humanly possible,” the kid’s eyes lit up and he smiled. I think by this time I was finally starting to get through to him.
“Don’t think for a minute though, that this relationship was a perfect one. It was wrought with problems and the guy had screwed up on more than one occasion and sometimes he screwed up so bad that she wouldn’t speak to him for days. One thing kept them together though, the fact that no matter how badly he screwed up, or how mad she was at him, he always came crawling to her making such apologies that not even the coldest heart could stay mad at him. He loved her so much that he would sacrifice his dignity and his pride just so she would take him back in her arms and tell him it would all be alright. That’s how much he loved her.”

“Did he ever cheat on her?” I heard the sorrow in his voice and the feeling of hopelessness was creeping back up on him.

“No, he never cheated on her but that is not the point I’m trying to make here,” I sighed in frustration and turned back around to face the kid who met my eyes with his. “The point I’m trying to get across to you is that no matter how badly you screw up, no matter how hopeless it may seem to be, if you love her as much as you say that you do you should at least try to get her to forgive you. Because, honestly, if you gave up right now. If you gave up and I let you drive away from here and you wound up killing yourself you would be stuck for the rest of eternity in a vicious cycle of regret. Don’t let that happen to yourself, boy.” He wiped a stray tear from his cheek and sat in silence for a few minutes.

“What should I do,” he looked up at me with pleading eyes, “How can I make things right?” He had finally made his decision.

“Call her, talk to her. Get down on your knees and beg for forgiveness, because if this is the true love that you say it is then there is nothing else to do.”

“Then I need a phone!”

“Alright, I’ll take you to the station and you can call her from there while you sober up.” The station was ten minutes away, down a slow local route that let out into the center of town which, at this time of morning, was still fast asleep. We pulled into the parking lot and I took up my usual spot on the side near the K-9 kennels. I let him out of the back and he followed me up to the officer’s entrance to the station. The rain was finally slowing down and the moon began to peek out from behind the dark storm clouds.

I hung my dripping wet raincoat on a hook by the door and pointed the kid to a phone on a desk opposite my own. I headed into the locker room to get a change of socks since the ones that I had on were soaked through and though. He couldn’t have been on the phone for longer than five minutes because when I came back out he was sitting in a chair rocking back and forth, biting on his nails.

“She’s on her way here,” his voice sounded of mixed excitement and dread.
“You have no idea what you’re gonna say to her, do you?” He thought for a minute but said nothing so, as if to stimulate some kind response I jabbed him in the chest with my index finger. “Listen to that that thumping in your chest. Speak from your heart and you’ll be just fine. You can wait for her in there,” I pointed to the glass waiting room where he slid into a chair facing the door. I took a seat at my desk and tried to figure out how to write the report for this one. The kid wasn’t a bad seed, it was just a rough night for him and I really didn’t feel like jamming him up for it. He reminded me so much of how I was when I was his age.

It felt like I sat there thinking about it for nearly an hour before the kid knocked on the glass door of the waiting room. He had pretty girl standing behind him and she, like him, looked like she had been crying for hours. I opened the door and he grabbed me around the waist in a giant hug. They had patched things up, at least for now. They would probably talk more tomorrow when he was more awake but I had no doubt that they would be just fine. She said she was driving him back to her place so he could sober up and so they could finish working out their problems in the morning. I agreed that this was the best course of action and I decided to walk them out to their car.

The rain had stopped finally and the clouds were breaking up so that the stars were visible again. The girl was even more beautiful in the light of the stars, she reminded me so much of the girl that I had fallen in love with. We said our goodbyes and the girl thanked me for looking after her boyfriend for her. I smiled and started walking back towards the station. It was about time for me to go home anyway.

“Officer!” The kid’s voice shouted from across the parking lot and I turned on my heel to see what was wrong. The kid was hurrying back towards me.

“What’s wrong, kid?”

“What happened to them? The guy and the girl from your story, I mean did they live happily together and all?” I stopped and thought for a moment. I hadn’t thought about how that story was progressing in a long time. I’ve been too caught up in work to have much time to think about it at all. And then my lips curled into a smile and I nodded.

“Yeah kid, we did live happily.” I winked at him and handed him a card, “You ever need anything, gimme a call.” He took the card and smiled back at me.

“Yes, sir!”

I decided to set off for home a few minutes earlier than usual. I had this feeling like there was something that I needed to do before I turned in for the night. I drove quickly through the back roads and side streets as if the devil himself were on my tail, reaching my small two floor home in record time. Creeping up the stairs silently I pushed open the door to my bedroom and peeked in. There, lying on the bed, the reading light still on and the comforter tossed about half on the floor, was my angel, the one girl that I would do anything to keep. I knelt down next to the bed and took her book from her hand and placed it on the bedside table. I picked the comforter up and tucked her in gently so as not to wake her, but she stirred anyway. She felt for my hand and grasped it in hers, but she did not wake up. I kissed her forehead and then her lips before turning out the light and crawling into bed with her, my clothes still on. I pulled myself right up close to her, held her tight and whispered, “I love you, my angel, and I always will.” She let out a half sigh and then there was not another sound to be heard from either of us.

And that was the last I had seen of him or his girlfriend for quite sometime. I botched the report and made it out to have been a false alarm for a stolen vehicle check and it passed on unnoticed. I had decided to take on fewer hours so that I could spend more time with my angel. I even took a vacation which I hadn’t done in a number of years. But, it wasn’t until another year or so later that I heard from that kid again. He had sent me and invitation for two to his wedding. I hadn’t intended to go at first but I guess I felt I should just to give the kid a pat on the back.

It was a nice ceremony and reception, with and open bar and lots of cakes and snacks. I saw him and his new bride standing amongst a crowd of well-wishers so I decided now was as good a time as ever to give them my best before I took my angel home. I stepped up behind him and leaned against a nearby table, I guess I wanted to make it seem a little bit more dramatic that it really was.

“Hey kid,” I said to him, and he turned to face me. “Ya done good, congrats.” He reached out and gave me a hug and I patted him on the back and told him I was on my way out. He thanked me for coming and handed me a very professional looking business card with which he said to call him if I needed anything and I turned to go.
“Hey, officer,” I turned back around. “How’s that story you told me? Still have a happy ending?” I smiled and looked over towards the door where my beautiful angel stood waiting for me. She saw me and smiled back as if she knew what we were talking about.
“As happy as ever, kid.” I left him there as a happily married man, the same as I was. Marriage in itself is a completely new adventure for a man, one that many men undertake on sheer whim alone, and fail just as easily. But this kid, he’ll do just fine, he has true love on his side and it’s hard to lose with that. As for me, well, I truly consider myself the happiest man alive.

Reemergence

I recently rejoined the job hunt due to the fact that my current job makes me absolutely miserable and I have noticed that most jobs in which I would be looking at applying to require writing samples. Since I have none I figured I would start to write based upon my own life experiences and views of the world. My problem was I had no idea where to put any of these. I was then reminded that I have this blog which I neglected for quite some time but shall now be used as my portfolio.

So stay tuned here for my newest rants and raves about life, the universe and some other random stuff.

The Irksome Fowl

Alright, I was just having a conversation with some friends and I felt the need to get this out into the open very quick and forcefully. I am a huge fan and supporter of Darren Lynn Bouseman's latest movie, the Rocky Horror style rock-opera, Repo! The Genetic Opera. Now most of you have probably never heard of Repo! so I will briefly summarize:

In the year 2056 - the not so distant future - an epidemic of organ failures devastates the planet. Out of the tragedy, a savior emerges: GeneCo, a biotech company that offers organ transplants, for a price. Those who miss their payments are scheduled for repossession and hunted by villainous Repo Men. In a world where surgery addicts are hooked on painkilling drugs and murder is sanctioned by law, a sheltered young girl searches for the cure to her own rare disease as well as information about her family's mysterious history. After being sucked into the haunting world of GeneCo, she is unable to turn back, as all of her questions will be answered at the wildly anticipated spectacular event: The Genetic Opera

So, that being said I have a major problem. This movie is fantastic. Its smart and funny and original albeit campy but it is a good movie. I have personally traveled across the country to see this movie at certain events and I would never have traded the experience. Look around your area and find the nearest place that is playing or will be playing Repo! and go out and see it. You will not be disappointed.

So back to the purpose of this rant. Repo! being a genuinely good and original movie has gotten a slew of bad reviews. I'm only going to pull out one because it is the one that pisses me off to no end and hope the author of said review reads this and chokes on it. So here it goes.

FUCK YOU KURT LODER

How stupid do you have to be to actually think you have the right to say anything about this movie? YOU WORK FOR MTV - YOU HAVE NO CREDIBILITY

You're review of Repo! is biased and unintelligent and that is merely putting it nicely. As an employee of MTV you can not comment on anything musical for the simple reason that MTV DOESN'T PLAY MUSIC. They stopped playing music in the mid-90s when reality TV hit it big. It has been so long since I can remember MTV playing music that I was probably in diapers at the time. So with that being stated I will now calmly state my issues.

1. If you are going to criticize a rock opera, at least watch it. Kurt's summation of Repo! isn't even accurate.
2. If you are going to be a reviewer for MTV go review something that has nothing to do with music. MTV is no longer a credible source when it comes to music and the world knows it.
3. Sarah Brightman(actress/singer who played Blind Mag in Repo! and Christine in the Original Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera", also a world renowned opera singer) WANTED to be in Repo! She wasn't tricked or scammed and she has been on TV as saying so. Get your facts straight before spreading lies.
4. I don't care if you were editor of Rolling Stone in the 80s, you left there and went to MTV to forsake everything musical and follow the crowd of screaming pop culture preteens whose opinion of music ranges from the depressing faux angst of Fall Out Boy and Dashboard Confessionals to the ill-tempered and masoginistic stylings of Kanye West and 50 Cent.

I'd write more but its honestly just getting me furious. I can't stand this stuck-up snobbish society that we currently occupy. People like Kurt Loder never went out to a Repo! showing when it was in theaters or on one of the three Repo Road Tour events that spanned the country and will soon be going to the UK. They never saw the throngs of fans dressed as characters or singing along with the screen, they watched it in a theater with other critics all wanting to say the same thing and following the social preconceptions that the term "rock opera" has incurred. That's all I'll say on this.

Want to check out Kurt Loder's lies? Here's the review of Repo! The Genetic Opera

How about seeing for yourself and checking out Repo! The Genetic Opera

The Opening of a Bag of Whimsy

OK, lets get one thing straight! I've always wanted to start a conversation with that line. It sounds so official and full angry sentiments that just scream repressed feelings... or maybe I'm just crazy.

So this is a blog (thank you Admiral Obvious). This is in in fact my first blog and I'm hoping to make it something that can be enjoyed by the many masses of folk who browse the internet looking for some sort of distraction from their everyday lives. I do not pretend to be all that interesting or even funny but I hope that what I write here may one day serve as a representation of my feelings, ideas and philosophies, not that many people are going to care but I will and that's what matters.

Let us begin. Come, enter into my imagination and see him:

Who am I and why do I think I'm important enough to have a blog? My name is Brendan Murphy. I am a 22 year-old writer/college student in New York. I have no ties to any political entity, I am not registered to a political party, I am not published in any way and only 1 out of 1,000 people will ever have heard my name.

So why would someone like me want to write a blog and have it posted all over the internet for folk to read? Well, the main purpose for this blog is going to be to "Rant". I have always been told that I am a good writer and I feel that if I can share my views and ideas with the world then maybe some good somewhere will come of it. Who knows, a butterfly flapping its wings and all.
So if you find this interesting, enjoy. If not, oh well. If I can help one person with something that I write here then I guess it was successful.

So here we are, on the raggedy edge, lets open the Bag of Whimsy and see what insanity pops out.