serial - the podcast series from an american life

Adnan Syed

Hae Min Lee

Serial is a podcast series, a spin off from 'This American Life', and was one of the most riveting pieces of real life drama that l have had the pleasure of listening to, despite (or because of) the fact the series was dealing with real events, real people, and a real murder. Plus because you are only listening to the show, your mind fills in loads of gaps, and it is easy to become really engrossed and involved with it, probably more so than if you were watching it on TV.

From episode to episode you are left reeling, not knowing what to believe, or who to trust, and swinging from 'That person must have done it' to 'Damn! It's probably that person instead'.

The gist of it is this. The murder of Hae Min Lee takes place in Baltimore, and her ex boyfriend, Adnan Syed, is charged and convicted of the murder, mainly on the testimony of one of his so called 'friends' who said he helped Adnan move the body.

There are phone calls aplenty to Adnan, and interviews with others involved. Court records and statements are scrutinised, and re-enactments of movements undertaken. Even the person behind the interviews and podcasts, Sarah Koening, doubts her own judgement as the evidence mounts one way or another.

I don't want to give away the ending, but all of this is in the present, and still ongoing, and l cannot recommend it enough.

Superb stuff.

It can be downloaded from here.

Do it!

Now!!

As a bonus, here's the spoof Saturday Night Live Christmas version

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the death of emmett till

 Emmet Till and his mother

The Jury - who thought Bryant and Milam were guilty, but didn't deserve a life sentence or the death penalty for killing  a black man, so acquitted them

The murderers

I first heard about the death of Emmet Till through the song by Bob Dylan, but after re-reading about it recently, it is amazing to think that it only happened in 1955, ten years after the end of the Second Word War.
Till (aged 14) had supposedly wolf whistled at Carolyn Bryant, a shop girl in Money, Mississippi, and was subsequently beaten, an eye gouged out, fatally shot, and then thrown into the Tallahatchie river.
While there was outage after the body was found, and the open casket funeral to show Till's beaten and disfigured face, there was even more when the all white jury found the killers, Roy Bryant and J.W Milam (Carolyn's husband and his half brother) to be not guilty.  The killers later gave a paid interview to Look magazine in 1956, where they admitted what they had done, but because of Double Jeopardy, they could not be retried, and they went on with their lives, with Bryant not dying until 1994, aged 63.
Despite the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr preaching non violence, and the rapid escalation of the Civil Rights movement due in no small part to this case, l'd still have wanted to extract revenge on the murderers.
Just over 50 years ago - that is no time at all as far as history is concerned, and sadly, there are still plenty of people about now who still harbour the white supremacy attitude, and probably think what happened to Till was justified.
Twats.

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confessions / kokuhaku (2010) - tetsuya nakashima

A teacher tells her class before she leaves that she knows two of them have murdered her daughter, and she has taken her revenge on them (which they are shocked to discover).  The story then develops, giving alternate viewpoints and showing different time frames, until the unexpected twists at the end.  Confessions / Kokuhaku  is a Japanese film by Tetsuya Nakashama with English subtitles, and it is one of the best films l have seen.  It seems longer than it is, due to the interweaving and dark plot, and it certainly drags you in, gets you involved, and keeps you guessing.  Egotism, bullying, revenge, an Oedipus complex, love, grief, betrayal, inventions, killings, blood and gore, denial, the internet, a dog and some dance moves.  All are present and correct.  Even the soundtrack, featuring Radiohead and The XX (amongst others) is excellent.  What more could you possibly want from a movie?  Marvelous.

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lizzie borden's passport application

This is a copy of Lizzie Borden's passport application.  Don't know who she is?  Read this.

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le boucher (1970) - claude chabrol

Le Boucher (The butcher) can be pretty ambiguous as far as understanding the story goes.  Behind the fact there is an unrequited love story between Popaul  the butcher (Jean Yanne) and Hélène (Stephane Audran), the village headmistress.  There are murders, suspicion, doubts, pent up frustrations and bad memories (plus 'blood, lots of blood'). Popaul is messed up from being in the army and growing up as a butchers son (and later, a butcher himself).  Hélène  is repressing herself and is single, due to an earlier relationship that has left her emotionally scarred (although she appears pretty happy for most of the film).  They fall for each other, but Popaul is rejected in his attempt to take it further, and is then suspected by Hélène of being responsible for some local murders.  She covers for him when she finds incriminating evidence, but there is a twist to this that could have been devised by Hitchcock himself. In the end, he comes to her home with a knife, and you are left to ponder at how you feel at the conclusion.  Was it her rejections that drove him to kill, or would he have done it anyway?  Does she have transference of guilt, or does he confirm that men are not to be trusted?  Does she fall for him in the end, or just feel sorry for him?   My own view (probably wrong) is that they are both messed up from their past experiences, both lonely and eager to please, but Popaul is pushed over the edge by rejection slightly sooner than he would have been without meeting Hélène.  The kiss at the end could be out of pity or just kindness being returned to someone who has always been kind to her.  What the hell, watch it yourself and make you're own mind up.  It's starting to make my head hurt thinking about it.


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his name is luka (he eats people on the second floor)

This young gentleman is called Luka Rocco Magnotta (aged 29). He looks nice enough, but is being charged in Canada with stabbing to death Lin Jun, a Chinese student. He is also being charged with dismembering the body, eating some of it, defiling it, posting the limbs to schools and government offices, dumping the torso behind his apartment, and posting a video of most of it online. Oh, I nearly forgot, the head was dumped elsewhere and found by a lake in Montreal.  He has previous form for posting videos of himself torturing animals. The good bit?  His lawyers had to decide if he should have a psychiatric evaluation. I'm no expert, but l would have considered that as a more than viable option as soon as the case was bought to court. I certainly wouldn't fancy sharing a cell with him.
On another note to do with the case, a Montreal teacher has been suspended for showing the video to students. Apparently the students asked to see it (I don't know their ages), but as a teacher, you would think  the requests would be ignored. Of course a team of psychologists are available in case the pupils are in shock (or to prevent the school getting sued).
It wasn't like this in my day - the tapioca pudding was the most scary think we had to face.


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