« Happy, happy, worry, worry... | Main | Bad, bad, BAD mood. »
March 26, 2000
Lovely weather, good books, and a disturbing film.
It's beautiful out today. Probably about 70 degrees, clear skies, a nice breeze... wow. I hope it lasts. I've got a bad case of spring fever.
I went to Lee's to watch TV and eat Chinese food with her and Patrick last night. It was apparently National Jackie Chan Movie Night, because there were at least three different Jackie Chan movies on at a given time. We watched the end of Rush Hour, which I haven't seen -- we own it, but we haven't gotten around to watching it yet. Then we flipped to a very disturbing and sad HBO documentary about a horrific crime in Arkansas and the three young ment who were convicted of it, but who are fairly obviously not guilty. It's far too long a story to get into here -- the documentary was very good, and the web site has a lot of information, if you're curious. The film was actually the sequal to an earlier documentary -- I haven't seen the first part yet, but I'd like to soon. Suffice it to say, even without seeing the first part, and even though I was trying to stay objective while watching, I was convinced the three men convicted had not committed this crime. That was one of the many things that depressed me so much about the case -- I was up until after 1 a.m., just thinking about it. If you're squeamish, I don't recommend watching the movie or reading too many details about the case -- it's truly horrifying. But what's worse is the fact that three young men are in prison, one on death row, for something they likely didn't do. The documentary brings up a whole can of worms about people being judged by appearance -- the three accused wore all black, listened to Metallica, and at least one of them is Wiccan, so they were suspects right from the start, in spite of a lack of evidence. I have a great deal of sympathy for anyone who is considered weird or bad because of their style of dress or musical taste -- I was partial to black in high school, and listened to music that was deemed "weird" by my classmates, and I suffered for it -- I stopped riding the bus and got rides from my mom because I kept getting threatened and hit and kicked on the bus, I made sure I had friends with me at all times between classes so I wouldn't get beaten up, and I learned to try to be as invisible as possible. It's a rotten thing to have to deal with -- but then, everyone I know had a rotten time in high school. Comes with the territory, I guess.
Hmm, this is a downer of an enrty. I'm in a good mood, I really am. I went shopping for spring clothes today, very successfully. I found the street I'll be living on along the bus route, and I finished a paper yesterday, so I have nothing at all to do today now, except maybe clean the litterbox (ew). So I'm happy. I might just go laze around on the porch with a book -- I'm reading Motherless Brooklyn right now, and it's excellent. Funny, and a little sad, and utterly entertaining. I almost missed my stop on the T Friday night, because the scene I was reading was so engrossing. I'm about halfway through it, and I already recommend it highly.
Posted by Mary Ellen at March 26, 2000 12:43 PM