Monday, March 24, 2008

That's What She Said ...

I worry about what this says about me that the very first thing I thought when I opened this press release this morning was that it had to be somebody's idea of a really, really, really over-the-top attempt at satire:


For Immediate Release
March 23, 2008 Re: Casting Call

BE A PART OF A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

Seeking people from across the Carolinas for the Feature Film “NAILED”

HUNDREDS of 7-12 year old girls are needed for filming!
ALL TYPES and AGES are also needed.



It took a couple more (in my frame of mind amiguous) paragraphs before I realized exactly what we were talking about here:




“Nailed” is an original comedy about a small town waitress who gets a nail accidentally lodged in her head causing unpredictable behavior that leads her to Washington, DC, where sparks fly when she meets a clueless young senator who takes up her cause. Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal are slated to star under the direction of David O. Russell. Filming is scheduled to begin this spring in the Columbia area.



A ... unique ... plot. I certainly didn't nail that one.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

All That's Left Of A Man

Let me tell you about this belt I saw today ...

I'm sitting in a federal courthouse pew. Next to me are three people -- two young men and a young woman. They're there to be sentenced for their part in a drug conspiracy.

A peculiarity of the court system is that you can be sitting next to a condemned man and not know it. Not everyone who is about to spend a good portion of their life in prison is already in jail. If they behave well, they get to live free until their day of judgment comes (if you call it freedom with what's looming on the horizon).

The first man is called up to be sentenced.

He's given a break on his sentence because he wore a wire, bought drugs and helped bust up another drug ring. He's sentenced to several years in prison and allowed to leave the courtroom and report to prison on his own in the coming weeks.

The second man makes his way before the judge. This man is guilty of the same crime, except that in addition he had a gun in his possession when the house was raided.

The gun means that he gets a stiffer sentence and that he's required to be taken into custody the moment the sentence is rendered.

He cooperated similarly, providing enough information to force the first man to admit what he did instead of maintaining innocence and forcing a jury trial.

Like the first young man, his cooperation allowed him to mingle among society until his sentencing day came.

He's wearing a collared shirt with a tie, dress pants and a belt. He walked into court today knowing he wouldn't leave a free man. Still, he's dressed as if he weren't a criminal. You have to suppose it can't hurt.

***

Whenever someone steps forward from the crowd for sentencing (instead of being led through a side door wearing bright-colored jumpsuits and bound by chains), the U.S. Marshals -- dressed discretely in suits, blending in with the lawyers -- position themselves in anticipation of what they think a sentence might be.

If they know someone is on the verge of being taken into custody, they block any path back out the courtroom double doors. Just in case the passion of the moment takes hold.

It's a surreal display, watching someone being surrounded ever-so-subtly in a strange reality theater.

The young man gets 14 years.

He's been in jail before. This isn't his first crime. Once the sentence is imposed, he looks around for direction on what to do next. A mixture of confusion and familiarity.

The marshals lead him to a side door and point at his waist. The door closes and he's gone.

Immediately after, the young woman, who had been struggling to catch her breath before her turn, walks before the judge. She's in less trouble. She simply helped them keep the "stash house" in order.

The second young man was her boyfriend.

As she stands before the judge, sobbing and begging for forgiveness, a marshal re-enters the courtroom with a belt in his hand.

It's one of those kinds of laced belts that has all the holes where you can stick the metal clip through any part of the belt (the kind that people who seem to be uncomfortable dressing up often wear).

The marshal sits down casually in a chair as the woman is sentenced. She gets a couple of years behind bars and is allowed to leave and report to prison later.

As she walks by, the marshal hands her the belt and tells her someone has to take it. The alternative is that it's thrown away. The fear is that a desperate man might try to hang himself before he's stripped of his possessions and dressed in prison clothes.

This man won't be seeing another belt until he reaches his mid-life crisis.

***

We die with each second that ticks toward inevitability, whatever that might be. In this particular reality, we have created a manufactured inevitability. The kind that makes loss of life seem ordinary.

The belt is well-worn. The leathery material is crusting off.

The marshal is holding it like a dead, decapitated snake.

As I look at the belt, I think of how a young man died today.

Or at least a part of him.

Or at least the man he was.

A free man.

The belt looked like something a beast would expel from its stomach after it devoured a person.

Like spitting out indigestible bones.

"Missi ...Whatever"

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR A LEGIBLE VIEW



The 13 things I love about my 7-year-old son's 2008 March Madness tournament bracket:

1.) On its face, it's a gutsy bracket with serious darkhorses but manages by the Final Four to maintain sanity with three #1 seeds along with one #2 seed (important because the tournament never works out to have all #1 seeds in the Final Four).

2.) "Oklahomea."

3.) Spelling all of the names of the schools out, but saying screw it on "Mississippi St." and just making sure there's a "St." and an "m" and an "s" and a "p."

4.) The random use of cursive for Kansas by the time they reach the Elite Eight.

5.) The ability to set aside emotions and go ahead and pick Clemson to win that game that we expect them to win (even though we don't want them to).

6.) Then to abruptly kick them out of the tournament when they meet an SEC team.

7.) The willingness jettison USC when they meet Kansas -- even though he thinks the USC he's axing from the tournament is his own beloved Gamecocks.

8.) "Miami (Fla)." Hey, he's been to Miami, and he knows it's in Florida, but that's what it says, man -- even if he has no idea why there would be a Miami anywhere else, let alone Ohio.

9.) Only one win for the weak Big Ten conference.

11.) Admitting to having no idea who Drake is and no idea how good they might or might not be, but still picking them over San Diego, even though a father would expect a kid his age would pick a team based on what his favorite NFL team is. He knows LaDainian Tomlinson isn't on scholarship.

12.) "Samford."

13.) UMBC to the Sweet 16. Who is that? I don't know. And I'm the adult.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

My Self Esteem Is In Jeopardy

I watched "Jeopardy" this evening and by the end of it felt a bit down on myself.

Was it because I didn't know in "Final Jeopardy" that the probe NASA sent last year to Mars was named "Phoenix?" Was it because I labored over whether it would be "HAL" or the more technically correct "HAL 9000" because the question made reference to a failed attempt to launch in 2001?

No.

And it's not because of the galactic knowledge curve that spikes upward between "Wheel Of Fourtune" and "Jeopardy." I'm resigned to getting at least half of the answers right and leaving the other half for those annoying triviaphants who always know something about everything.

The problem is ... I don't have a "Jeopardy" story to tell.

You know, that brief period when we the television viewers get to meet the contestants.

The contestants, surely with the help of producers, always concoct some story that paints their lives as having at least one thing interesting enough to re-tell on a nationally televised game show.

Tonight:

Contest 3: Woman went out on a blind date with a dentist. The date went horribly bad. Turns out he ended up doing a root canal on her some time later. The root canal was better than the date, she said. Alex laughs.

Contestant 2: Man went to live in Guatemala with his wife and is now bringing back his adopted Guatemalan kids to America. Inspiring.

Contestant 1: I can't remember, except that her story was interesting. I rooted against her. I didn't like the way she called out categories. And she celebrated too much when she won.

I've searched my cache of memories, and I simply can't think of any story I could use on a "Jeopardy" show.

Starting tomorrow, I will train my eyes and ears and enlist the help of acquaitances and strangers to help me identify just what pieces of my everyday life might qualify as the stuff worthy of a "Jeopardy Story Moment."

Or I could go the meta route and have Alex tell the viewing audience that my "Jeopardy" story is that I don't have a "Jeopardy" story.

Then again, I have no plans of going on "Jeopardy," so I guess I'll just have to do something interesting.