"Dexter," "V," "The Little Mermaid," human emotions, domesticity.

"There are fewer things harder to bear than remorse. ...It's what separates us from the animals." - Trinity Killer, Dexter (“Road Kill”*)

When Trinity said that, naturally he didn’t really know what he was talking about. He was a cold-blooded serial killer, completely devoid of humanity. Not all killers are cold-blooded by design. But for Trinity, the ritual of the kill and what it stands for to him completely consumed the original emotional impetus that drove the first killings. The habit of murder is what makes a killer a serial killer. And though suffering and emptiness, two humanistic experiences, may lay the foundation--it is the desensitization to remorse that peels back the moral binding that would usually constrict a citizen. To liken this to the animals, though… is that a speciesist sentiment?

There is still a school of thought, unfortunately a prevalent one, which casts doubt on animals’ ability to feel

"We pay attention to brain development, but the development of warmheartedness we take for granted." - Dalai Lama

Just had to blast this!

From Time Magazine's 10 Questions. His Holiness has a new book out, Toward a True Kinship of Faiths. The Dalai Lama will now take your questions ("10 Questions." 4)*

Excerpt:

Q: How can we teach our children not to be angry? - Robyn Rice, Grand Junction, COLO.

A: "Children always look to their parents. Parents should be more calm. You can teach children that you face a lot of problems but you must react to those problems with a calm mind and reason. I have always had this view about the modern education system: we pay attention to brain development, but the development of warmheartedness we take for granted." - Dalai Lama

* "10 Questions." Time Magazine. 14 June 2010: 4-4

Cinema Review: "Exit Through The Gift Shop," a Banksy film.

by Marcel Reyes

Image used is the Mister Brainwash Madonna piece that was used as cover art for her Celebration greatest hits collection.

Though ostensibly to be about the work of Banksy and street art at large, "Exit Through The Gift Shop" is a film about fanatic emulation, obsession, and deconstruction. Very funny, and at times offensive to artists and art scholars, it makes a sharp incision into the contextualization of contemporary art. The film is mainly about the life and work of Thierry (pronounced Terry) Guetta, a floater of sorts whose deep emptiness due to tragic loss and general alienation causes him to latch on to whatever has the strongest flavor nearby. In this case, Thierry is immersed in the world of street artists, who take to his gung-ho enthusiasm and his knack for recording everything on camcorder (evolving into a fabrication in which Thierry is gathering material for a first-of-its-kind documentary about street art).

From under the wing of one street artist (Space Invader)

Exhibition Review: "Otto Dix @ Neue Galerie, NYC"

by Marcel Reyes

Image used is Dix's Portrait of the Dancer Anita Berber, a highlighted work in this exhibition (used educationally for this review).

Though raw in content and at times appearance, Dix's work should not be taken as loose and expressive. It is tight and focused visually, and thematically the ouvre as a whole bottlenecks to passion and violence, portrayed with theatricality and grotesqueness.

This show presents Dix's work in dual experiences of appeal, first it presents the work as embittered political commentary about war and nationality, but it also connotes the celebrity of Dix himself, particularly in the resurgence of his more straightforward portraiture ("the golden Weimar years") in the dead-center of his 20th century career.

The Neue Galerie's Dix Show offers, as commemorative merchandise, Dix-inspired