Wow, It's November Already

And it's raining today. It rained a bit yesterday, but luckily for the trick or treaters last night, it stopped long enough for the kids to make their rounds and get the goodies last night. I think I had more kids come to my door last night than I had last year. One good indication is that I didn't end up with left-over candy this year. There were some really cute little ones at my door. A little fireman with great big brown eyes. A little princess with a huge smile. A little dragon who wouldn't talk. And many more. By the way, the little dragon was my grandson! lol...

I've been keeping busy with stuff around here, but it sure doesn't show much. I still have a lot more old photos to scan, including the old ones of the bridge here in Meridian. I need to get those out of the pile and get them scanned so I can post them on here with comparison pictures from "now". I've also been reading through the family tree information that my cousin had done. I need to update my genealogy software so I can get the online family tree updated.

I'm still watching the news and still following a few cases.

Stacy Peterson
She's been missing for a year and a few days now. Her husband, Drew, is still considered the suspect in her disappearance. The Will County State's Attorney, James Glasgow released a statement about the case a few days ago. He says that they are close to determining what happened to one of Drew Peterson's wives. Whether it will be about Stacy or Drew's 3rd wife, Kathleen Savio is anyone's guess. All we can do is wait and see what comes out next. I hope this case doesn't end up "forgotten" the way Lisa Stebic's case has.

Phil Spector
The second trial for the murder of Lana Clark started this past Wednesday, opening statements were given by both the prosecution and the defense. Testimony was supposed to have started on Thursday, but one of the alternate jurors fell in the parking lot at the courthouse and apparently broke his foot. Judge Fidler postponed the start of testimony until this coming Monday. The first trial for Phil was televised live last year, but no media outlets have stepped up to the task of televising the second trial. Apparently the media has decided that Phil Spector isn't newsworthy enough to go to the expense and effort of manning a camera and microphones in the courtroom this year. So, for those following the case, we're down to gleaning bits and pieces of information from what news organizations publish and from bloggers. One blogger in particular, Sprocket, is planning on attending as much of the trial as possible and her blog, Trials and Tribulations, will be my "go to" place to find out what happened in the courtroom. She does an excellent job of narration, detailing all that goes on in the courtroom as well as giving information about the people in the courtroom with her.

I have to wonder how Phil feels about not being famous or newsworthy enough to be plastered all over the papers and news shows every night. It seems to me, that Phil Spector wants to be "famous" and wants to be "honored". In an interview that came out before a documentary was aired on British television, Phil complained about his lack of accolades for what he did for the music industry. From the Mirror UK:

His hands shaking, Spector clearly does care - and the man who gave the world classic tunes like Be My Baby and You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' believes he is given far less respect than he deserves.

"I don't get depressed cos I don't let myself get depressed," he says.

"It is a wasted emotion. But I'm concerned with the fact that I haven't been made a doctorate at a college and Bill Cosby has, even Bob Dylan has.

"I think I have offered more to American culture and music than they have, or as much. George Martin, Paul McCartney are made sirs, Buddy Holly had a stamp, I love him, but he only lived three years in rock'n'roll."

In my humble opinion, Phil has an extremely inflated opinion of himself. All the names he mentions did a lot more for the music and entertainment industry than he ever did. His name was not as well known as any of them. His "fame" only comes from what he did in a studio to other people's performances. When the murder of Lana Clarkson hit the news, most of the public didn't know who the heck he was. He was a producer, not a "star", and producers don't have the "fame" that the stars have.

As for the trial, there's an interesting quote from Phil about that as well.

As for the upcoming retrial for the death of Lana Clarkson, Spector insists people are out to get him.

He describes the judge of the first trial as a "mean son of a bitch" and admits: "I have been ostracised from the industry with this indictment hanging over me. Innocent until proven guilty is no longer a factor."

He thinks he's been ostracised from the industry because Lana died? Uhm. No Phil, you dropped out of the industry a long time ago. It's been 30 years or so since Phil developed his "wall of sound" and has done virtually nothing since then. The "wall of sound" worked well on the old sound systems, the transistor radios and the "record players" with one speaker. But on the sound systems of today it would sound like crap, in my opinion.

What a sad little man he is. He went out on the town that night, bent on partying and having a drunken good time. He finally ended up at the "House of Blues" and was greeted by the hostess, Lana Clarkson, who mistook him for a woman. I'll bet that stung his ego. His date for the evening left him there and Phil pestered Lana into going back to his "castle" for a drink. Apparently Phil did not want to be alone that night. In the early morning hours, Lana ended up sitting in a chair in the foyer of Phil's "castle" with a gunshot wound in her mouth, her jacket on, her purse on her shoulder. There were two people inside that "castle" that night and one of them can't talk anymore. One person outside who heard the gunshot and then saw Phil come out the door with the gun in his hand and heard him say "I think I killed somebody". With Phil's history of pulling guns on women to keep them from leaving until he was ready for them to leave, it would seem that Phil pulled that gun on Lana to keep her from going home. He wanted "company" and he was going to make sure he had it. Was the gun going off deliberate? Or was it an accident? Whichever it was, it was his gun, his house and Lana is dead. That is murder.

I'll be watching Sprocket's blog for updates on the trial. Too bad for Phil that he's not famous enough to be in the headlines anymore.

Caylee Anthony
The missing 3 year old girl and her family is still in the news a lot. Casey, Caylee's mother, is in jail and will be there until she goes to prison. She has enough charges against her and enough evidence for those charges that I don't see any way she can strut her way out of it. She has a November 5th date for the check fraud charges, and a December 11th date for the pre-trial hearing in the murder case with January 5th set as the starting date for the murder trial. I'm curious if Casey's going to have two trials. One for the check fraud and one for Caylee. I wonder if any of the news stations will be streaming the trials live.

Meanwhile, Casey's mother, Cindy has been "busy" surfing the web and harassing people who blog about the case. One blogger in particular received a phone call from Cindy. The blog is called Justice for Caylee and the blogger puts daily updates up for all to read. In her post on Wednesday the 29th, the blogger details a phone call that she recieved from Cindy Anthony. Cindy has gone too far. In that phone call, Cindy blasted the blogger for having the website, blasted the blogger for the slideshow at the beginning of the site and accused her of trying to make money off Caylee. Cindy then went on to malign Tim Miller of EquuSearch, accusing him of using Caylee to make money as well. I'm not going to detail all that Cindy ranted about in this post. Go to the Justice for Caylee site and read for yourself. Lee Anthony has also joined in the "bash Tim Miller" club that his mother started. He sent emails out to news organizations telling people not to donate money to EquuSearch. The Investigation Discovery Criminal Report Daily blog about the Anthony case wrote about the emails as well as detailing a fax that they received from Todd Black, the invisible spokesperson that the Anthony's have hired. He blasted the EquuSearch organization as well. Sick, I tell you. Just plain sick.

Then we have the lawyer, Jose Baez. Yesterday, the news reports were all about him being warned for hugging Casey at the jail. Warned twice. As a rule, most jails have a "no touch" policy for security reasons, but Jose seems to think that hugs are ok. According to him, he didn't know it was against the rules for him to touch Casey. And according to him, he hugs all of his clients. Ick. One of the news stations, Channel 9 in Orlando even reported "Mr. Baez stated he was upset as he hugs all his clients. He went on to say he would hate for a brief to be filed in order to correct this." Uhm. Jose? What the heck kind of brief would you file and what are you trying to "correct"? You want special permission to go against the rules and hug all your clients? Or is it just that you want special permission to hug Casey Anthony?

Other Stuff
There are other things that I watch for in the news as well. Things about the fires here in California, and the aftermath of the fires. For instance, areas of the state are under a flash flood watch this weekend. Particularly in the areas that were burned durning the fires this summer. I'm hoping for a gentle rain, no gully washers that would cause havoc in the areas that are trying to recover from the fires. At least the fires are out now for the most part. The people in those areas that burned just have to watch for flash floods and mudslides now. I'm glad I'm down on the flatland. But I guess I'll keep an eye on the level of the Sacramento River which is a block away from where I'm sitting.

And to close today's post, I'll put in an LOLCat in honor of yesterday, Halloween....


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