Sunday, March 21, 2004
The loss of shock value in America
Wow, I'm really surprised I didn't get any Comments on that last post. Then again, how can I dare compete with The Passion of the Christ for shock and awe value? That's one of the problems with this country today. Or is it? I'm all for the reduction of censorship, but I still think people should have their own personal moral code by which they make their judgments. Alas, I've been sidetracked. I really just wanted to post a short blurb on my impressions of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", which I saw last night. I thought that it was a good movie, but not a great one. Still, I recommend that you go and check it out. It was a strange movie, and a rather melancholy one as well; both of which are virtues that I enjoy. There were parts of the movie that really struck a chord with me. For example, one of the first lines in the movie is, "Valentine's day is a holiday created by the greeting card companies in order to make people feel like shit." Go back and check out my Feb. 11th post in case you don't remember my opinion on that topic. I liked the theme and ideas behind the screenplay, and I also liked the creative style with which it was presented. It took place mostly in a reverse chronological style, similar to Memento, however it was further complicated by the fact that it was taking place in a man's mind. Even with all of this going for it, however, I didn't enjoy the movie as much as I could have. I don't think that it made it's point clearly enough. The ending was good, but it seemed rushed. It's hard to pin down what I didn't like about the movie. In the end it may be a lack of substance. The movie leaves you thinking, but without too much to think about. Perhaps a second viewing would uncover more details and connections, but perhaps not. The film had good ideas, but needed more memorable scenes supporting them. Overall, I recommend the movie for being different and enjoyable, even if it doesn't measure up as an all-time great.
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Tuesday, March 16, 2004
"Y'all Yankees suck dick" and other stories of "the south"
John, Justin, and I had been driving basically all night. It was about 6:30AM and the sun was just coming up. The MINI had been on "E" for awhile now, so I figured it best to stop for gas. We got off at the first exit in Georgia and pulled into a Texaco. It was our first stop since Cincinnati, about 6 hours earlier, and it felt good to get out of the car and stretch. After I finished filling up the tank, I went to the bathroom. As I was walking out, I happened to glance at the graffiti on the bathroom door and noticed the phrase "Y'all Yankees suck dick" scribbled out in red marker. Welcome to the south, I chuckled to myself, as I headed back to my car with New York plates. Alas, that was only the beginning......
The next stop was not an intentional one.
We had been driving down US 431 in Alabama for about an hour. This isn't exactly a backwoods road, I mean it's 4 lanes divided, it's just not limited access. I had been following a Lexus SUV for awhile. We were going 70-something in a 65 zone. Nothing too ridiculous. It was about 10:30 in the morning. We spot a cop car up ahead in the median, and both slow down, already in the right hand lane. The Lexus is now going about 60, and I don't think either of us are sure whether it's a 55 or 65 zone. Sure enough though, as we pass, the cop pulls out into the left lane. He starts off going slightly faster than us, and pulls up just ahead of me so that his back axle is even with my front. Then, he starts slowing down. In the mean time, I saw a sign confirming that the speed limit was 65, so I nervously inch past him in the right lane. I'm still only going about 62, blocked by the Lexus. Now the cop is in my blind spot, and just hovers there for what seems like forever. Finally, he pulls back behind me and over into the right lane. Then comes the lights and blip of a siren. I pull off the road, completely into the grass, because, of course, there are no shoulders on the roads in Alabama. I turn off the car, and the cop comes over to the passenger side. Justin, who was sitting in the back wasn't wearing a seat belt, and we're all wondering if that's why we got pulled over. The cop asks me for my license, registration, and insurance, and tells me that I was following the car in front of me too closely. He says something about Alabama state law requiring 20 feet per 10 miles per hour of following distance and says he's going to issue me a written warning. He never even noticed the seat belt. He tells me to get out of the car and go stand behind it while he calls the warning in for processing or something. I figure, OK, it could have been worse, I don't even have a fine or anything, and I'm being nice to the cop. We chatted a little while we were waiting for the station to call back, and everything seemed fine. I signed my little yellow warning slip, and he said, "OK, have a nice day." I walked back to the car, and just as my hand touched the door handle, the cop yells out, "Hey, can I ask you a question?"
And the nightmare begins......
The cop calls me back behind my car again, and goes through his little story about how they get a lot of people transporting illegal drugs and such on the highway, and then asks me if I have anything like that. I of course say no, and then he says, "Well, you wouldn't mind if I searched your vehicle then?" Now, at this point, I've only known Justin and John for about 12 hours, but I'm pretty sure they don't have any drugs with them. The problem was that we had about 9 bottles of liquor and a 12 pack of beer with us. All in all, about $100 worth of booze. Everything was sealed, and all of us were completely sober, but we were all only 20. At first I said, "Yeah, I guess you could search", hoping that he would be satisfied with that and just let us go. Of course that's not what he does though. He asks me to sign some form giving my consent, and I ask him what happens if I say he can't search the car. He tells me that he would have his drug dog sniff around the car, and then we would go from there. I knew we didn't have any drugs, so I said, "OK, go ahead and have your dog sniff around." He makes the other two get out of the car and then brings out his dog. Before he starts sniffing around the car, he pats all of us down for weapons. I stood behind the car and watched the dog the whole time. To me, it didn't look like the dog got excited or found anything the whole time. Of course, that's not what the cop said. He made up some excuse about the dog scratching at the passenger side floorboard, and then proceeded to take out all our luggage, one bag at a time, and search through everything by hand on the hood of his car. In the process of emptying the car, he of course ran across all of our liquor, and started lining it up on the roof of my car. When he found the first bag, he asked "is this what you were nervous about?" and we replied affirmatively. At the end, we had 4 bags lined up on the roof of my car, and all of our luggage lined up on the ground in front of his car. The whole time, these two redneck hicks are standing by their shack watching us. After he got through my one suitcase, which was one of the first ones, I just sat down on the dirt on the side of the road and watched in disbelief. When he had gotten through all of our luggage without any result, he brought the dog back out and sniffed each of our bags one at a time. He randomly chose John's backpack and searched through everything yet again. Finally, after not finding anything, he mumbled something about how sometimes prescription drugs set the dog off. Then he makes us re-pack all of our luggage back into the car while he puts all of the liquor into his car. The whole time, he never called in to the station or filled out any paperwork. When we finally get the car loaded up, he comes over to us and says, "Since you all are underage, having that booze is a jail-able offense, and even if you were 21, transporting that much across state lines would be a jail-able offense." After a brief pause he says, "Have a nice day." and walks back to his car. His name was Michael, and his dog's name was Ishmeal, both from the Eufaula, Alabama police department. The whole drama took about an hour and a half. I figure he took the liquor back to the police station and had a party that night.
RANT
OK, so here's some stupid redneck southerner corrupt cop who doesn't realize that the Civil War was over 139 years ago, and still thinks he needs to protect the south from the damn Yankees. He sees a car with northern license plates, follows them in their blind spot until he finds some excuse to pull them over, and then uses that as an excuse to search their car with a drug dog! It's absolutely ridiculous!!! None of us had any drugs, and he had no right to search my car! He shouldn't have even pulled me over, I wasn't doing anything wrong! I wasn't even following the Lexus remotely closely either by the way. It's ludicrous that this type of corrupt discrimination still happens in our country! Instead of racial profiling, it's geographic profiling. I'd hate to think what would have happened if we had been black. All in all it could have been a lot worse, but the whole thing was insanely stupid, and it pisses me off. I'm never going back to Alabama, and I encourage you not to visit either. If you do go to the south, you'd better be careful. You have no idea how stupid and ignorant those people can be. It makes me ashamed that they're part of the same country.
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The next stop was not an intentional one.
We had been driving down US 431 in Alabama for about an hour. This isn't exactly a backwoods road, I mean it's 4 lanes divided, it's just not limited access. I had been following a Lexus SUV for awhile. We were going 70-something in a 65 zone. Nothing too ridiculous. It was about 10:30 in the morning. We spot a cop car up ahead in the median, and both slow down, already in the right hand lane. The Lexus is now going about 60, and I don't think either of us are sure whether it's a 55 or 65 zone. Sure enough though, as we pass, the cop pulls out into the left lane. He starts off going slightly faster than us, and pulls up just ahead of me so that his back axle is even with my front. Then, he starts slowing down. In the mean time, I saw a sign confirming that the speed limit was 65, so I nervously inch past him in the right lane. I'm still only going about 62, blocked by the Lexus. Now the cop is in my blind spot, and just hovers there for what seems like forever. Finally, he pulls back behind me and over into the right lane. Then comes the lights and blip of a siren. I pull off the road, completely into the grass, because, of course, there are no shoulders on the roads in Alabama. I turn off the car, and the cop comes over to the passenger side. Justin, who was sitting in the back wasn't wearing a seat belt, and we're all wondering if that's why we got pulled over. The cop asks me for my license, registration, and insurance, and tells me that I was following the car in front of me too closely. He says something about Alabama state law requiring 20 feet per 10 miles per hour of following distance and says he's going to issue me a written warning. He never even noticed the seat belt. He tells me to get out of the car and go stand behind it while he calls the warning in for processing or something. I figure, OK, it could have been worse, I don't even have a fine or anything, and I'm being nice to the cop. We chatted a little while we were waiting for the station to call back, and everything seemed fine. I signed my little yellow warning slip, and he said, "OK, have a nice day." I walked back to the car, and just as my hand touched the door handle, the cop yells out, "Hey, can I ask you a question?"
And the nightmare begins......
The cop calls me back behind my car again, and goes through his little story about how they get a lot of people transporting illegal drugs and such on the highway, and then asks me if I have anything like that. I of course say no, and then he says, "Well, you wouldn't mind if I searched your vehicle then?" Now, at this point, I've only known Justin and John for about 12 hours, but I'm pretty sure they don't have any drugs with them. The problem was that we had about 9 bottles of liquor and a 12 pack of beer with us. All in all, about $100 worth of booze. Everything was sealed, and all of us were completely sober, but we were all only 20. At first I said, "Yeah, I guess you could search", hoping that he would be satisfied with that and just let us go. Of course that's not what he does though. He asks me to sign some form giving my consent, and I ask him what happens if I say he can't search the car. He tells me that he would have his drug dog sniff around the car, and then we would go from there. I knew we didn't have any drugs, so I said, "OK, go ahead and have your dog sniff around." He makes the other two get out of the car and then brings out his dog. Before he starts sniffing around the car, he pats all of us down for weapons. I stood behind the car and watched the dog the whole time. To me, it didn't look like the dog got excited or found anything the whole time. Of course, that's not what the cop said. He made up some excuse about the dog scratching at the passenger side floorboard, and then proceeded to take out all our luggage, one bag at a time, and search through everything by hand on the hood of his car. In the process of emptying the car, he of course ran across all of our liquor, and started lining it up on the roof of my car. When he found the first bag, he asked "is this what you were nervous about?" and we replied affirmatively. At the end, we had 4 bags lined up on the roof of my car, and all of our luggage lined up on the ground in front of his car. The whole time, these two redneck hicks are standing by their shack watching us. After he got through my one suitcase, which was one of the first ones, I just sat down on the dirt on the side of the road and watched in disbelief. When he had gotten through all of our luggage without any result, he brought the dog back out and sniffed each of our bags one at a time. He randomly chose John's backpack and searched through everything yet again. Finally, after not finding anything, he mumbled something about how sometimes prescription drugs set the dog off. Then he makes us re-pack all of our luggage back into the car while he puts all of the liquor into his car. The whole time, he never called in to the station or filled out any paperwork. When we finally get the car loaded up, he comes over to us and says, "Since you all are underage, having that booze is a jail-able offense, and even if you were 21, transporting that much across state lines would be a jail-able offense." After a brief pause he says, "Have a nice day." and walks back to his car. His name was Michael, and his dog's name was Ishmeal, both from the Eufaula, Alabama police department. The whole drama took about an hour and a half. I figure he took the liquor back to the police station and had a party that night.
RANT
OK, so here's some stupid redneck southerner corrupt cop who doesn't realize that the Civil War was over 139 years ago, and still thinks he needs to protect the south from the damn Yankees. He sees a car with northern license plates, follows them in their blind spot until he finds some excuse to pull them over, and then uses that as an excuse to search their car with a drug dog! It's absolutely ridiculous!!! None of us had any drugs, and he had no right to search my car! He shouldn't have even pulled me over, I wasn't doing anything wrong! I wasn't even following the Lexus remotely closely either by the way. It's ludicrous that this type of corrupt discrimination still happens in our country! Instead of racial profiling, it's geographic profiling. I'd hate to think what would have happened if we had been black. All in all it could have been a lot worse, but the whole thing was insanely stupid, and it pisses me off. I'm never going back to Alabama, and I encourage you not to visit either. If you do go to the south, you'd better be careful. You have no idea how stupid and ignorant those people can be. It makes me ashamed that they're part of the same country.
Saturday, March 06, 2004
FLORIDA!
'till next Sunday or thereabouts :-D
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