Journal

25 Minutes

/ Anita Marie / 2 Comments

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I was thinking about a conversation I had on my way to work this morning.

I ride the bus into Seattle every morning-  my route is called the Commuter Bus. The Commuter Bus is like the School Bus revisted so there’s the cool kids, the loner kids and the loser kids.

I fall between the last two, so I keep to myself.

This morning this guy gets on the bus, and you know he’s fallen on hard times and he sort of smelled like stale beer. When he passed me he said hello like he knew me and then apologized because he’d mistaken me for someone else.

( sure ).

So we start talking about where he’s headed for the day and then he starts to tell me about his job and how he has some family issues to deal with.

You know sometimes you can just see that someone needs to talk? They just want for someone to know they’re here.

So I start to talk to him and as we’re talking Miss America who blesses us with her attitude and presense every morning,  leans across the aisle to where one of the other Cool Kids,  (I mean Commuter)  is sitting from her and she’s making fun of me and this guy.

To his credit the other Cool Kid (I mean commuter) ignores her and she sits back and shuts her mouth for the rest of the trip.

So this guy goes into detail about his job as a Flagger ( he directs traffic when the roads are under construction ) and he’s into it. He told me about the tree types of flags they use. How some flaggers are actually scared of traffic and cars and how some people are just not into the job.

He obviously is.

Now I thought this was interesting because I see these guys all the time and I never really thought about what it was like to be out there. I never realized that there was drama an excitement out there along side the road…and I should have.

So I let him talk and it was a good trip, it was a fun talk and time well spent. He made me forget I wasn’t one of the Cool Kids ( I mean Commuter ) that sits alone in the back of the bus and waits for the trip to be over every morning.

When I got off the bus Miss America looks up at me with a frown and gives her long blond hair a toss as I walk by.

Oh  I almost forgot…it was a satisfying trip too.

Why Is A Four Letter Word Isn’t It?

/ Anita Marie / 2 Comments

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I wonder

why

in action and adventure movies

like Gladiator

and

 Rob Roy

does the rape of a woman

always

kick off the

 ‘ Heroes Journey?’

I wonder

why

Vampire Fighters

are always twenty something

 girls

with twenty something

waistlines

and

how come in

Star Wars

which

“borrows its themes and fight scenes so obviously from samurai and kung-fu flicks“

do we never see an

actual

Asian

Not Even

a pretend one?

I just wonder

why.

People Bite

/ Anita Marie / Leave a comment

Could you let someone walk by you, cut and bleeding or maybe scared and crying without doing a thing to help?

Could you let a man in a daze wander into traffic as buses and cars raced around him?

 Could you walk by a child- and by a child I mean someone under the age of 10- and leave him or her standing in the middle of a store with a terrified look on his or her face- and not ask them if they needed help?

Would it surprise you to hear that most people have told me they would just let it go? That they’re sure nobody would help them if they needed it, that no one would care if they were hurt.

So why should they help anybody else?

“I would help you.” I want to say  ” Actually I  would have helped you. “

That’s Where I Got It From

/ Anita Marie / 2 Comments

Jade at Brainripples asked this question on her blog:

“Who were your early artistic influences?”

I answered Rod Serling

and as I started to leave a comment

on her blog

about Rod

suddenly

 this little prayer popped into my

head

and I realized I say it

whenever I start to write a story.

I wonder why? 

From Ghoulies and Ghosties
  Long Leggitie Beasties
  And Things that Go Bump in the Night
  Good Lord Deliver Us

What Would The CSI Guys Say?

/ Anita Marie / Leave a comment

Lizzie Borden- she was a woman- she was a killer -and she got away with two of the most hands on brutal killings in American History.

To refresh your memory, Lizzie lived in a state where  ( in 1692 anyway )  you could just accuse a woman of being a witch and have her executed…just like that.

Another thing to keep in mind is that in 1892 women ( including Lizzie ) didn’t even have the right to vote-

that didn’t happen until 1920.

Anway- I think she did it but to this day Lizzie has her supporters and they say she’s innocent.

One of the arguments in her defense- which I think underscores the fact that Lizzie was found innocent because of her sex- was based on the time lines established for the killings.

Lizzie’s  Stepmother was supposed to have been killed an hour or so before her Father.

The theory is that it was very unlikely that  someone ( like a WOMAN ) who inflicted that kind of damage on a  person with an AX could have left a dead mutilated body upstairs and gone on with her day  and then come back later and did the same to someone else.

Have you ever seen the pictures of Andrew Borden?

Whoever did that was good and angry, they had worked themselves up into a mindless rage and that kind of rage can happen in the blink of an eye or it can build up…

say…

over an hour or so.

Links:

Link Photos From: The Chancery House

And visit: Lizzie Borden Virtual Museum and Library

Hey Paris Hilton: Bust You!

/ Anita Marie / 2 Comments

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There are Three Good rock solid reasons  for why Paris Hilton needs to be sent back to jail:

She broke the law.

She broke the law.

She broke the law.

And as an FYI they don’t suspend your license for fun, it’s usually a sign you’ve got a problem like this guy.

So go back to jail Hilton, you aren’t singing any song that every single jail bird before you  hasn’t sung before. (I learned my lesson, I don’t belong here… etc etc ).  It doesn’t work for them and it sure as hell shouldn’t work for you.

Oh yes…I almost forgot… as Hilton sat at home eating celebration cupcakes ( I’m not kidding about that part )  her attorney issued this statement:

“I want to thank the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and staff of the Century Regional Detention Center for treating me fairly and professionally,” she said. “I am going to serve the remaining 40 days of my sentence. I have learned a great deal from this ordeal and hope that others have learned from my mistakes.”

The only lesson we’ve learned here is that there’s Paris Hilton and the rest of humanity.

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Church On Thursday

/ Anita Marie / 4 Comments

I’ve had bad moments in my life but I haven’t reached the ” kill me now God ” stage.

It’s been close but I’ve dodged that bullet- however I have been around people when they all but dropped to their knees and hoped, they prayed that the Black Hole that’s supposed to be in the middle of the Milky Way Galaxy will burst and then spread and suck them up like lint into a dust buster.

You can’t NOT watch those human train wrecks no matter how hard you try not to.

I like to go to this little Chinese restaurant for lunch- the staff is nice, the food is good and I happen to like watching the Chinese Music Videos that they have going on the TV.

I can’t understand a word of it, but who cares? The music is good.

Anyway, I’m eating my lunch and the waitress is telling me about her weekend and what she’s going to do to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

That’s when these 5 guys come in and she seats them at the table right next to me and sets them up with menus. While she waits for them to order she comes back to my table and she’s telling me all about her New Years plans and the food she has to make.

Sounded good and she did almost all of the chatting when the guys say they’re ready to order. So she goes over, takes their order and goes back to the kitchen.

That’ when these guys start going on about this case and how they’re going to play it in court and it was an education because I had know idea the law was so – flexible.

Lawyers I thought to myself- but you bet I listened in because the dirt they were dishing was pretty interesting. It was like Law and Order on TV but nastier.

Then they move on to other subjects, like this other attorney in their office whose sleeping with the receptionist … and this attorney and the receptionist are both women.

I’m just amazed at this point that these guys are so loud and vocal about this stuff when it dawns on me that they’d only heard the Waitress talk…and my friends she has a heavy, heavy accent.

And I am very very not white looking.

In fact there was a couple of dozen other people in there for lunch besides me and the Attorneys and almost none of  the other patrons were speaking English to each other.

So I wondered if they knew I could understand every single word they’d said and I decided these are well educated people in the middle of Seattle having lunch should know better then to think something that…lame.

The waitress got the food out and just before she walked passed me I reached out and touched her arm and said, ” so, like are you gonna have Pizza at your party? Cause if you do I am SO there. ”

That’s when the silence from the next table spread and blotted out the Sun and changed reality as we know it.

I heard somebody’s fork hit the table and then I looked up and smiled at my co-patrons with a wolfish smile. That smile involved all of my teeth and it was so big I think I may have hurt some of the muscles in my face.

But it was so worth it.

It’s funny but at that moment I would have swore in a court of law that all five of those guys looked exactly the same…maybe it was the looks on their faces that gave that impression. You know it was that look that said,

” Kill me God, please kill me now. “

News About Santisteven’s The Cry

/ Anita Marie / 1 Comment

La Llorona (the crying woman) has terrified Hispanics across the United States and Latin America for over five hundred years.

Now here is your chance to meet her-

 Bernadine Santisteven director of “The Cry” a  supernatural thriller based on the Latino legend of La LLorona ( the Crying Woman )  told me that her film will get it’s chance to shine at the upcoming  New York Latino Film Festival in New York City.

The time and date are tentative – July 25th at 7:00pm. Bernadine advised that people should email the festival directly  at  Info@
NYLatinoFilm.com and ask for screening information on The Cry.

In the mean time you can visit her very sleek new website for the movie by clicking here and you can read a very wonderful article she wrote about making The Cry for Anita’s Owl Creek Bridge here .

And you can get a very sweet taste of the film here .

Just remember as you go through these links and watch the trailer-

 La Llorona is real-

Bernadine Santisteven

email:

bernadine@lallorona.com

It’s All In Your Head

/ Anita Marie / Leave a comment

There’s one thing I just can’t admit to people I know- I actually like some of Woody Allen’s films. I don’t know why, because I shouldn’t like them. 

My brain isn’t wired to like movies with brittle shrill characters who couldn’t find their own back sides if you gave them a map, a book called “Backside finding for Dummies” and a Backside Finding Search and Rescue team to help them out.

 I like movies with Pirates and Ghosts and Demonic kids that stuff babies into wine caskets and Mad Scientists that drip honey on people while they sleep and then turn bugs loose to devour the victim alive.

That’s me, that’s what I’m all about, and though I won’t cop to liking “Hannah and Her Sisters” I will say without a moments hesitation and lots of enthusiasm that one of my favorite movies of all time is Donovan’s Brain.

I like it for the ending.

At the ending of the movie the brain escapes from it’s tank and flies around the lab, chasing the mad scientist and his friends. The best part is Donovan’s spinal cord is still attached to the brain and the spinal cord is whipping around the place just like the creature in ” Alien ” would end up doing with it’s tail over 20 years later.

All kidding aside, I liked Donovan’s Brain because somebody had a story and they told it and exactly the way they wanted to tell it. They didn’t pretend it was anything other then a story about a killer brain that could fly.

That’s real story telling and that kind of story telling takes guts.

I keep that in mind when I write my own stories. 

Donovan’s Brain-  food for thought.