4 Minute writing-The Medium with the Baby Foot

I have been reading about Houdini and mediums and automatic writing. I wonder if they did it like the surrealists, did they really put a pencil to page and let it spill? Or did they know who their mark was, just write gibberish with no backbone, and threw in the name "George" because that was the name of the mark's grandfather? I would love to live in a time were you could go to a real honest Victorian seance. According to Houdini, Browning was at a seance where the "spirit of his first child who had died as a miscarriage appeared." Some white like form appeared but it turned out to only be the bottom of the medium's foot waving around in the dark room. And Browning said they had not had any child or miscarriage or anything of the sort.

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

I happened to catch Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills last night on HBO. It is positively spellbinding. One of  the best documentaries I've ever seen. It was released in 1996, and I just don't know how I missed it all this time. I do remember the murders...

The film documents the events from the arrests of Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin for the murders of Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch. Their naked and hogtied bodies were discovered in a ditch in a wooded area of West Memphis, Arkansas, known as "Robin Hood Hills".
Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky interview numerous people connected with the case, including the parents of the victims, the parents of the accused, members of the West Memphis Police Department (WMPD) and all the protagonists involved in the trial. Berlinger and Sinofsky are not filmed themselves, and the dialogue is provided by the interviewee, rather than using a "Q & A" format.

The documentary is seamless and unrelenting. The small details are haunting: Damien Echols combing his hair in the court while looking at himself in a strange hand mirror, the blurry image of Echols over the shoulders of the parents of Christopher Byers as they are being interviewed, the close-up of Byers' snakeskin boots while singing a hymn, the footage of Echols and Baldwin being clamped into restraints then stragetically putting their clothes over the chains.

This film left me shaken, drained, and upset. But isn't that what great art is supposed to do?

Nasty Cold/Sinus Infection Experience-WATCH OUT

For the last few years, I have managed to get a sinus infection at the beginning of the fall. This year when I got the pressure at the base of my throat and the dizziness, I went to the doctor early and got an antibiotic. After taking the antibiotic for a day, my stomach got really upset. I finally went to the bathroom to puke and something new happened: I puked all this clear stuff. It turned out that the antibiotic made all the stuff from my sinuses drain into my stomach, so I puked up sinus drainage. I felt I needed to put this out there in case one of you has the same issue and thinks you are dying.

I have to thank the antibiotic gods because without them, they would have buried me long ago because of sinuses. Buried me head first. Or I would have killed myself. Shot myself in the head and instead of blood, all the clear sinus stuff would have sprayed the wall.

Good luck if you get THIS first cold of the season. Even after several days of heavenly intervention from the antibiotic gods, I still feel wrong.

Men found sleeping in caskets in Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn., Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Police in Tennessee said workers at a funeral home called 911 when they discovered two men sleeping in caskets in a storage area.
Investigators said the workers at Weaver's Funeral Home in Bristol discovered the men sleeping at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and the suspects fled through a window when they learned officers were on the way, the Bristol Herald Courier reported Wednesday.
Police said they arrested Barrett Lance Hartsock on charges of burglary and vandalism over $1,000. The second man, whose name is believed to be Lars, was last seen in the Cherry Street area, police said.
The funeral home said the men caused more than $9,000 in damage to the caskets.

from http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2011/08/24/Men-found-sleeping-in-caskets/UPI-25151314214404/