And we all know why Kyra Sedgwick is always so happy looking.....And some good 'bacon' it is......
What Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Dana Jean
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Bacon is good in ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!And once again, every thread eventually leads to bacon!!
Bacon is good in ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kevin actually asked the CGI folks in the movie Hollow Man to make his.....ahem.....bacon appear smaller in a couple of those scenes where he's invisible (you have to have seen the movie to know what I'm talking about).
Gives a whole new spin on the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon game, don't it!
Gives a whole new spin on the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon game, don't it!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I started the second book in the series Michael Sherriff: The Shield- Arabian Assault by Preston Macadam (aka Michael McDowell). I really enjoyed the 1st book and this one is starting out with a bang! There's only three books in this series, so I don't know if that means that McDowell only did it as a three-parter or if the sales just weren't there and the publisher cancelled any more books.
That's what he said.Bacon is good in ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You're welcome!
The Book Of Matt by Steven Jimenez (2013)
This is going to be much longer than what I usually write about a book but I want to proceed carefully with this for obvious reasons.
A couple of weeks ago, I watched a moving documentary called “Matt Shepard Is A Friend Of Mine.” This documentary sparked my curiosity about the brutal murder of Matt. I remembered following the news coverage back in the 90s but I wanted to refresh my memory of the details so I looked the incident up on Wikipedia and looked at a couple more articles after that. Reading about Matt in those articles lead me to this book which claims to give a more accurate account of what happened to Matt.
I looked at some reviews before I read the book to decide if the book was written by some hate monger with an agenda of trying to tear down the positive things that have been done in Matt’s name or if it was someone trying to tell the truth. I found out that the journalist who wrote the book is a gay man and didn’t seem to have any agenda other that trying to tell a more accurate story than the official version so I read it.
Nothing in this book challenges the facts that Matt was brutally murdered by Aaron McKinney (and an accomplice, Russell Henderson) and did nothing to deserve it. It doesn’t change the fact that Aaron McKinney used a “gay panic” defense at his murder trial. The book does challenge Aaron McKinney’s motives and truthfulness about that defense. And nothing in this book changes the fact that Matt’s parents, Judy and Dennis are great people who have done an enormous amount of good in Matt’s name. This book doesn’t change anything in the documentary Matt Shepard Is A Friend Of Mine.
The author originally went to Laramie to write a screen play for a TV movie about Matt and the more he dug into the crime, the more questions he had. This book is the result of a more than 10 year investigation that started with the research for the screenplay. I found the book to be believable and much of what he has to say about the crime makes sense. I think that he does jump to some conclusions that are off base but overall, I think the book is mostly credible. Jimenez had the cooperation of the prosecutor and much of Jimenez’s story was actually in the court documents of the prosecution and defense teams. The prosecution didn’t use a lot of this info simply because they didn’t have to. The judge also issued gag orders on everyone involved in the trial and sealed the court documents after the trial so it’s understandable that the media didn’t have much to go on at the time.
The book is more than just about the tragic murder. It’s a story about how an event can suddenly get thrust into the spotlight and become part of history. It’s a story of the problem of meth use in rural America. It’s a story of small town good ole boy politics and much more.
This is going to be much longer than what I usually write about a book but I want to proceed carefully with this for obvious reasons.
A couple of weeks ago, I watched a moving documentary called “Matt Shepard Is A Friend Of Mine.” This documentary sparked my curiosity about the brutal murder of Matt. I remembered following the news coverage back in the 90s but I wanted to refresh my memory of the details so I looked the incident up on Wikipedia and looked at a couple more articles after that. Reading about Matt in those articles lead me to this book which claims to give a more accurate account of what happened to Matt.
I looked at some reviews before I read the book to decide if the book was written by some hate monger with an agenda of trying to tear down the positive things that have been done in Matt’s name or if it was someone trying to tell the truth. I found out that the journalist who wrote the book is a gay man and didn’t seem to have any agenda other that trying to tell a more accurate story than the official version so I read it.
Nothing in this book challenges the facts that Matt was brutally murdered by Aaron McKinney (and an accomplice, Russell Henderson) and did nothing to deserve it. It doesn’t change the fact that Aaron McKinney used a “gay panic” defense at his murder trial. The book does challenge Aaron McKinney’s motives and truthfulness about that defense. And nothing in this book changes the fact that Matt’s parents, Judy and Dennis are great people who have done an enormous amount of good in Matt’s name. This book doesn’t change anything in the documentary Matt Shepard Is A Friend Of Mine.
The author originally went to Laramie to write a screen play for a TV movie about Matt and the more he dug into the crime, the more questions he had. This book is the result of a more than 10 year investigation that started with the research for the screenplay. I found the book to be believable and much of what he has to say about the crime makes sense. I think that he does jump to some conclusions that are off base but overall, I think the book is mostly credible. Jimenez had the cooperation of the prosecutor and much of Jimenez’s story was actually in the court documents of the prosecution and defense teams. The prosecution didn’t use a lot of this info simply because they didn’t have to. The judge also issued gag orders on everyone involved in the trial and sealed the court documents after the trial so it’s understandable that the media didn’t have much to go on at the time.
The book is more than just about the tragic murder. It’s a story about how an event can suddenly get thrust into the spotlight and become part of history. It’s a story of the problem of meth use in rural America. It’s a story of small town good ole boy politics and much more.
Sounds like an interesting (if heartbreaking) book. The Intermountain West--UT, WY, ID, MT,with the exception of Salt Lake City itself--is a difficult place to be gay, even now. Murder is horrible, of course, but suicide is far more prevalent. I've lost three friends that way; more have just moved far away.When my daughter came out, my first advice was to keep doing very well in school, because she needed to get out of here. It's maddening when who you are attracted to can be a death sentence.
I think the shocking part of the book is the author's claim that Matt and Aaron knew each other. This is backed up by countless documents and witnesses, many of whom claim to have seen Aaron in the clubs in Denver when Matt lived there. That goes totally against the trial version of what happened. One of the things that I wondered about before I read the book is, why would this nice likable guy (Matt) leave a bar (where his car was parked) with a violent low-life meth head like Aaron McKinney. The claim in the book is that they knew each other and that the murder was drug and robbery related (it's more complex than just the robbery of Matt though). The author doesn't claim to know exactly what happened that night but lays out several facts about McKinney and leaves it a little open ended and you come away with a different view of what happened.
One of the things that I got from the doc and the book was that Matt was this guy that almost everyone that met him liked. He was fun and outgoing but despite this, comes across as very lonely. If most of the author's claims are true, it is no less of a tragic story.
Being a gay man, the horrible murder of Matthew Shepard is still to this day an upsetting subject to me. I didn't know him personally, but his story resonates with me. There is a member here who did know Matt but I forget who it is. I think what made this murder become a national story was the national politics/view at the time of the murder. People were becoming way more acceptable to the gay lifestyle. Another thing that made it more newsworthy was the way that Matt died: beaten, tied up to a fence in the middle of nowhere, laying in the snow alone. What a horrible, horrible way to die. Judy Shepherd kept this one fact to herself for many years and only a few years ago shared it (to help bring comfort to others who still felt the pain of Matt's murder): authorities found deer tracks close by that fence where Matt spent his final time on Earth and there were indications that the deer had lain next to him. My hope is that Matt took his last breath while that deer was next to him. RIP Matt.....
Just finished Invisible by James Patterson. It was fantastic.
I read about this several months ago (think I posted about it in the Documentaries thread). I pray this is true and that Matt felt some peace from the deer. I believe an animal would do this. And yes, R.I.P. Matt.
I started reading Blow Out by Thomas Scortia and Frank Robinson last night. They co-wrote The Glass Inferno. It's about a huge tunnel being built that would connect Chicago with New York and, of course, there's a disaster that happens.
Reread A Death in BoBD this afternoon. I first read it when it was published in the New Yorker. Enjoyed the intro - SK mentions the Dakota Territories. Kinda forgot the mentioning of the Black Hills in the story. Don't know if SK has ever been to ND. Probably not, he's a very smart man!
Just finished "A Land More Kind Than Home" and I ended up liking it more than I thought I would. Maybe "like" isn't the right word, it's a sad story, but I was into the plot and cared about what happened to the characters, that's how I judge books.
About to start "Love May Fail" by Matthew Quick (I think).
About to start "Love May Fail" by Matthew Quick (I think).
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