Sympathy

Such a tremendous amount of emotion and publicity over the whole Casey Anthony trial.

It feels a tiny bit more personal to me because of the proximity, this has all taken place within just a few miles of my home.  Cindy and George Anthony's house is in the same general part of Orlando as we are, and back in the early days when Caylee was missing, Greg stopped and talked to George at his roadside stand over on Goldenrod Road.  They chatted for 10 minutes or so, and Greg took a flyer.  George seemed very nice, Greg said.  The Anthony's house is actually just two blocks away from where my co-worker lives; she's had to go home a different way the past few days because of the news crews and the people who just drive past the Anthony house like it's a tourist attraction.  She can hear the helicopters circling from her house.

It's been weird having international news crews camped out in downtown Orlando.  It was weird the afternoon we had a bad thunderstorm; Greg and I sat on the couch watching the storm outside our living room windows and, at the same time, on CNN.  Dozens of reporters were in the same storm, on multiple different channels, all reporting live from outside the Orlando courthouse.

What could be worse than a parent not only failing to protect their baby, but actually causing the baby harm?  It might be the very worst thing.  To any person not broken, it's heartbreakingly upsetting to hear about it happening.

My heart breaks for little Caylee, and for anyone who loved her, too.

I wish things were different.  I wish Caylee had lived the long life she surely deserved.  I wish her little body had been found in time for a cause of death to be determined.  I wish, assuming Casey caused Caylee's death, that she had been proven guilty.

But her body wasn't found in time, and the medical examiners couldn't determine whether or not she'd been murdered, and prosecutors couldn't prove that Casey killed her.  Maybe she did, she certainly did a lot of bad and suspicious things.  She probably did, but probably's not good enough.

I admire the jurors for being able to separate the emotions from the rational thought, and for having the courage to make what they knew would be an unpopular verdict.  One of the female jurors was apparently crying as the verdict was read.  I probably would've cried, too, I just hope I would have had the bravery to vote the way they did.

Good for them.

Screamfest/Gay Pride

Last Sunday Greg and went to the Screamfest horror movie convention at the Wyndham hotel. I think Greg was disappointed that it wasn't bigger (it wasn't nearly as big as MegaCon) but there were some interesting people and vendors there. We didn't have to pay for tickets, we won tickets from ORock, yay!

We met and got pictures with Jane Wiedlin, from the Go-Go's. We asked her why she was at a horror convention -- she's done some sci-fi movies (and was on one season of the Surreal Life, which is kind of horrific, I guess) but never anything horror related, and she said they invited her without really explaining why, and she figured why not? She was very nice, and very tiny... I think she is even shorter than I am.

There were also lots of actors from various horror movies, which I didn't know. I am not a horror movie fan, even though I am married to a very knowledeable, expert, horror movie FREAK. :-) There were also some people in costumes... I have no idea what the costumes were, but they looked cool.

I talked to some cool people and bought some artwork and saw Patricia Quinn (Magenta from the Rocky Horror Picture Show) and met Lloyd Kaufman. He's the president of Troma, he wrote and directed a bunch of classic cult movies, such as the Toxic Avenger. We got pictures with him, too -- he asked the girl working with him to come take our picture, and it sounded like he called her Labia. When she gave me back the camera I asked her what her name was, and she said Jane. I kind of frowned, and she rolled her eyes and sighed "He calls me Labia".

We left the convention around 1, and decided to go downtown to eat lunch at Tijuana Flats and go to the library, and maybe take a walk around Lake Eola. It turned out to be Gay Pride day, and the festival was right across the street from Tijuana Flats. It was a beautiful Florida day. They had a stage set up in front of the history center, and Miss Sammy was the hostess. We walked around all the booths, I got a Gay Yellow Pages and a Cirque du Soleil enamel pin, and picked up the new Watermark.

We had the new spinach artichoke tostada at Tijuana Flats, and it was so good I couldn't shove it in fast enough. They say it's a promotional special, if they don't add it to the regular menu it'll be a crime.

We walked through the CityArts gallery and saw some wonderful artwork -- anyone who remembers the days of OVAL will be shocked to see what the space has been turned into. I saw art by a few former OVAL members, like Donna Dowless and Liz Watkins, but didn't see any by several of OVAL's best. I wonder where Cameron Moore is now?

We spent a while looking through the library and came outside just before the parade started, so we went up to the second floor of the parking garage across the street and watched from there. It was a great place to watch the parade and take pictures!

We saw Moira and Jana from the Philips Phile, and Savannah, and Billy Manes from the Weekly. Disney had several cool floats, and Cinderella's carriage with huge black horses. They handed out Mickey ears to the kids in the crowd. Universal Studios had some of their Mardi Gras performers, including the stilt walkers, and they threw beads.

There were bikers, and people who got married at the Metropolitan church, the Orlando Gay Chorus, and floats from Parliament House and Southern Nights. The one from Faces was the funniest -- they had a U-Haul with women squirting the crowd with turkey basters. (It's a famous lesbian joke: What does a lesbian bring on the second date? A U-Haul.)

Good times!