the peacoat papers

i named my hard drive bugliosi

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the Manson murders.  All over Los Angeles, there are "tributes" to the anniversary of this gruesome act in the city's history.  I've always found it interesting that the Tate-LaBianca murders have come to be known as the Manson murders, because Manson himself didn't kill anyone during the two-night killing spree.

He ordered the murders to be carried out by a handful of his faithful following, and I have no doubt that he is the true Evil here, but it's still strange, isn't it?  I understand why masterminds are ultimately held accountable, but in this case it took a special kind of person to wield a knife the way these people did.  Brainwashing can only get you so far.

My forensics fascination runs long and deep, and I still can't pinpoint where it started.  I became obsessed with the sinking of the Titanic when I was only in the fourth grade.  But I can mark where it switched from a curious hobby to I-Kinda-Wish-I-Had-Gone-To-Law-School: idly picking up the book Helter Skelter.  

I'm not sure I have ever devoured a book like I did that one.  (Warning: Helter Skelter is very graphic and descriptive, so if that kind of thing bothers you, please do not take this as a recommendation.  I am aware that not everyone will love this work like I do.)  The book remains in my top five of all time. 

I rushed right out and bought everything I could get my hands on by Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor for the Manson crimes.  One that The Gorilla and I still reference, because I forced him to read them all too, is And The Sea Will Tell.  I also gulped down Outrage: The Five Reasons O.J. Simpson Got Away With Murder.

Bugliosi writes and lays out an argument in the best possible way.  He is very extreme, very sure.  I doubt we would be bosom buddies, but he might be tops on my list for possible dinner party guests.

I don't need all the articles that have popped up this week to remind me of the Tate-LaBianca murders.  I think of them frequently, and of Manson's influence, and how this weekend forty years ago marked the beginning of the end of the hippie dream.  These murders were a turning point in a culture. 

 

(Vincent Bugliosi, my hard drive's namesake.)

tana french's The Likeness

I have had a few people ask me about my recently read books in the sidebar and their star rating.  If you click on the book, it takes you to the Amazon page, and not to my thoughts.  I have to figure out how to fix that, but in the meantime I do want to give notes on those worth it.  This is not a review, because I dislike what that implies.  It's just my two cents.

I read Tana French's first book, In The Woods for book club earlier this year.  While there are some frustrating things about that book - namely, major plot points remain unresolved - I really enjoyed her writing.  I didn't think I would be a detective novel reader, but I do have a forensics fasination, and French delves into the nitty gritty.

The Likeness puts one of the main detectives from In The Woods on a new case a year or so later.  The premise is really, really hard to swallow.  So unlikely that if you can't get past it, you can't enjoy the book.  Cassie - the detective - is apparently a ringer for a murdered college girl, and she moves into the house and life as Lexie, the murdered girl.  So the friends don't know Lexie has been murdered, and Cassie pretends to be Lexie (home from the hospital!  healed from an attack!) for the next month.

Obviously, suspension of disbelief is required here.  I know several sets of identical twins, and after almost any length of time you can tell them apart.  So to buy that Cassie is able to pretend to be Lexie - a complete stranger - is, well, ridiculous. 

But get over it.

Because the book is good.  I had dreams about these characters, that is how engrossed I became.  The thing I notice most about French is how she doesn't leave anything out.  Most modern books are written in the same concise way that movies are edited.  That is, conversations and jumps of time are condensed for storytelling purposes.  Not so with French.  She gives you every sentence of that conversation.  Which could be dullsville, but it's not.  It keeps you aware of each character's nuances and gives you anticipation for the next Big Event.  The structure is not "And then this happened, and then this.  Then this!"  It's almost like real-time storytelling.

I ate it up. 

The ending is more satisfying than In The Woods, if that matters to you as a reader.  What she did with In The Woods didn't bother me as much as it did a few of the others in my book club.  But The Likeness is an excellent escapist read.  I like those.

(Also in my sidebar is a link to my goodreads to-read list.  If you have any recommendations, I'll take 'em!)   

sunday in the canyon - keys in the door

I have always been a 'fraidy cat.  I was a latchkey kid who loved to read Stephen King, so you can see where the problems might arise.  I have lived with the deep fear of SomeoneIsInTheHouse for as long as I can remember, and am still fairly convinced that I will leave this world due to a grisly murder that winds up on Forensic Files.   

My morbid imagination has involved me in incidents such as The-Time-I-Was-Almost-Kidnapped-On-Dogwood to The Great Theta House Evacuation of 1998, but those are (excellent) stories for another day.

These days I reside in a big ole' clanky 1920's three-story home in the canyon that rattles and sighs and has multiple suspicious crawlspaces.  And, as fate would have it, I spend many a night here alone due to my husband's insane work schedule. 

We bought a high-tech alarm system.  I check and double-check that the doors are locked many times.  I sleep with the phone. 

But all of that would really be for naught since my murderer could just cruise right in through the front door because I've thoughtfully left him the keys right in the lock.  He could even use my car as a getaway since those keys are, too, right there. 

That's right.  More than once, more than three times, I have left my entire key ring just a-hangin' in the door like that.  Usually it's because I've been unloading groceries or something from the car and then just shut (and lock!) the front door without checking. 

Once The Gorilla found them when he got home late from work, but the other times they've hung there all night, begging, pleading for someone to come in swinging an ax.  So when you see me on the news, just shake your head and advise the police that they need not look for an elaborate entry point. 

Cheers!

friday links

I started this week with the best of intentions, a very long to-do list, and high hopes for where 2009 was going.  Monday was good, Tuesday a little shaky, but I held my head high.  Both days I got a medium amount done.  And then came the Wednesday crash.  I don't know what happened. Nothing happened.  But I was an emotional wreck.  Hormonal?  Possibly.  More likely I was finally letting myself take deep breaths after a hectic holiday and a packed vacation.   

By evening, I felt better but had an irrational amount of guilt over what hadn't gotten done yet in my week.  This has been happening lately, too.  Production Guilt.  A friend just recently said to me something like, "I don't think you have a realistic view on what the average person is accomplishing."  Maybe she's right.  I should probably let go of the expectation that every day is a Rube Goldberg.  Some days are just...normal days.  I can get used to that. 

I did manage to do a few link-worthy things:

I watched Rachel Getting Married and The Reader.  Both great, both I watched having no idea what they were about.  RGM is hard to watch, especially after the year my family has had.  The actual wedding, though, was this beautiful, lively hod-podge-y thing that made me want to be there.  The Reader feels like two different movies.  The first hour is very sexual, so don't watch it with someone that you'll be uncomfortable with during those scenes.  The story's premise really took me by surprise.  Kate Winslet deserves the awards she's getting both for The Reader and for Revolutionary Road (one of my favorites so far).      

I joined GoodReads, a site designed to catalogue what you're reading and what you want to read.  I'm constantly jotting down in my moleskine some book recommendation, but then I prompty forget about it.  This way I can see everything on my "shelf" that I want to read.  You can also see what you're friends are reading or have read and that opens the discussion.  It's almost like an online book club!

More book nerdiness:  my book club read The Devil in the White City this month, and our reviews were mixed.  The one thing we all agreed upon was we could have used more detail about the grisly murders.  Which may be sort of sick, but my forensics fascination leaves me  immune and curious about those sort of details, which the book lacked.  Lucky for us, one of my friends found this DVD about H.H. Holmes which may give us what we want.  If nothing else, the second clip on the site has amazing photos of the World's Fair. 

Last but not least, here is a great article wondering why you aren't on facebook.  I am one of those fifty million users that has joined in the last six months and this article made me laugh almost as much as these Facebook Commandments. 

Happy Weekend, peacoat readers!  I will be spending it with an old friend and her husband, and then on Sunday welcoming home my own husband from his week abroad.  All sounds very normal to me.   

the dixie chicks just love a good controversy

Last week it came out that the country trio Dixie Chicks were being sued because - guess what! - Natalie Maines said something offensive.  Of course her most famous gaffe came in 2003 when onstage she professed embarrassment that President Bush was from the state of Texas. 

While I will defend to the death her right to say such things, I will always shake my head at the stupidity of the comment.  KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE please.  As a whole, country music fans are flag-waving people, and (at the time) the support for the invasion of Iraq would have been strong among the country radio set.  I'm not saying she should spout views not her own in order to cater to fans, but it might have been a wise business move to stay mum on the subject while on stage.  In another country.  Yes, she was in London when the remarks were made.  Which takes a special dose of cowardice.

Am I suggesting that she, uh, Shut Up And Sing?  Sorta.  Just in the business sense.  And as a music fan who begs - pleads - for artists to play music on that stage, even if they choose to be politically active off of it.  And I feel this way across the board. 

A few years later, the Dixie Chicks came out with an album addressing the controversy.  A risky move that could've fallen either way, but the album was so good, so powerful, that it was genius.  I had no problem supporting that art.  "Taking the Long Way Around" was one of my favorite songs that year. 

This time, Ms. Maines' comments won't cause such a national stir but are noteworthy.  Apparently she made statements at a rally and insinuated on her blog that another man was responsible for the murders that are currently keeping the West Memphis Three in prison.  The man she is implicating - the step-father to one of the victims - is suing the band for libel.  (Yet another frivilous lawsuit by someone with dollar signs in their eyes - yippee!). 

Several high profile celebrities have thrown their support behind the cause to Free The West Memphis Three.  However, I believe there is a canyon of gray area between believing that there was not enough evidence to have convicted the kids (where I sit) and believing they are wholly innocent (where I still have questions).  It's a whole new level entirely to publicly accuse a man of triple homicide when he hasn't been charged.  

questions worth answering

During some 3am college gab session, I was sitting in my sorority house when the dilemma was posed, “If you could ask God one question, what would it be?” Followed by answers of the utmost piety and intelligence I’m sure.

I will never, ever forget that when it came around to Alyson, my best friend from college, she said that if she had one question to ask God, it would be “Who killed JonBenet?” And she was completely serious. I’m also fairly certain she said it just like that, first name only. Although it’s not like we would be confused, who else has such a name?

So I guess new evidence has come to light today clearing her parents of their involvement in the murder. True Crime junkie that I am, stories like this always interest me. And I’m also willing to bet, knowing her as I do, that Alyson doesn’t believe a word of today’s news.