M&M: Murder In The First

The movie from the year 1995 is based on true events. More later on just how true those events really are.

The plot begins in 1938. It tells the story of Henri Young (wonderfully played by Kevin Bacon), who is imprisoned as a criminal in Alcatraz, the famous prison on the island off San Francisco. The first 20 minutes are not necessarily easy to watch. Because Young is in solitary confinement after an attempted escape and is treated really badly, if not to say tortured. After several years in solitary confinement he's released to the general population again. At lunch time he meets another prisoner, Rufus 'Ray' McCain (David Michael Sterling), who had been with Young at the attempted escape back then. Young lunges at McCain with a spoon and eventually kills him, which in return leads him back to solitary confinement again.

The young attorney James Stamphill (Christian Slater) is supposed to defend Young at court for the murder of McCain. The story is actually told from his point of view. The case seams clear and nothing special at first. But it takes Stamphill a while to get Young to open up and in fact speak at all. The dialogue between the two, especially when Young is called a witness and forced against his explicit wish, to answer questions, are wonderful dialogues with much fun and humour, which speaks to me a lot personally. A beautiful interaction between Kevin Bacon and Christian Slater.

After Henri Young spent years in solitary confinement, it's hardly possible to speak of resocialisation, and in the end not only Henri Young has to explain himself at court, but also the guards and especially the warden have to justify themselves.

In the movie Henri Young is depicted as almost innocent, caught when he stole 5 dollars to provide for himself and his sister and otherwise, apart from the murder of the fellow prisoner, not a criminal. The reality is a little different.

Henri Young really existed. As well as the fellow prisoner Rufus McCain. Together with others they did attempt to escape the prison. That much is true. (Although according to wikipedia it was a year later than in the movie, namely in 1939.) But Henri Young was far from innocent. Even before he came to Alcatraz, the “real” Henri Young was a convicted bank-robber, who in fact was known to be aggressive with hostages. So there can be by far no talk of just stealing 5 dollars to provide for himself and his sister and being caught.

The argumentation in the movie is that it wasn't Henri Young, who was responsible for McCain's death, but the detention conditions and prolonged isolation, was really the argumentation of the defence. I won't anticipate the end of the court case in the movie, but will say this much: that Henri Young's life did not end the way Stamphill (Christian Slater) tells. The truth is that Henri Young was transferred to another prison in 1948. Henri Young's wikipedia entry talks about him “jumping parole” in 1972. Which means that he was allowed to leave the prison for while and under certain conditions. But he never came back from that release and his whereabouts to this day are listed as “unknown”. Having been born June, 11^th 1911, Henri Young would be over 100 years old, if he is still alive today.

The movie is really good and worth watching. Even though, as stated above, the first 20 minutes are not nice to watch. It's to be expected that a movie “based on true events” is often told fairly freely. However I find the very bold deviation quite frustrating. Especially since the end tells something that is absolutely not the truth, namely that Henri Young was in part responsible for Alcatraz being closed. The truth is that Alcatraz was closed in 1963, which was a good 20 years after Henri Young had spent time there. Also Alcatraz wasn't closed because of dubious detention conditions and/or in the end no longer allowed solitary confinement. There are many documentaries from 2000 or later about solitary confinement. Even though such detention conditions are just as dubious as they are depicted in the movie back then. By the way, it is just as wrongful depicted in the movie and stressed several times that the purpose of Alcatraz was resocialisation. In the German wikipedia-article there is the following note (my own translation):

“Alcatraz had 2 purposes:

1. Transfer of troublemakers from other prisons, to prevent escape, violence and suicide attempts.
2. Transfer from prisoners, to send them back to another prison with better behaviour. There was never talk of resocialisation.” (Emphasis mine.)

By the way, the reason to close Alcatraz, among others, was that the salt water affected the building over the years and the maintenance and repair was simply too costly and extensive. The reason was not at all the conduction of the prison.

With this generally good movie, I find it's a pity just how much the facts are twisted, Henri Young's life as well as the history of Alcatraz. I personally would have liked the note of Henri Young's disappearance without a trace, most of all because it would have been closer to the truth and in my opinion also more positive for Henri Young in the movie as well. Maybe it wasn't heroic enough for the movie makers. Then again, the real Henri Young was never a hero from the very beginning anyway.

From the child's mouth part 2

I went shopping this evening. In front of me at the checkstand was a young woman with her little boy. She gave him two banknotes for him to pay with them. He looked at the banknotes and named the value correctly: 10 and 5. The mother praised him and asked how much 10 + 5 is. "Two", he said. I smiled an internal smile. Two banknotes. That's right. "Something like that", the mother said. The checker called out the total price and the mother told the boy to hand her the banknotes, which he did.

The factory of the future

The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.

Warren Gameliel Bennis (1925-2014)

Religious signs

On March, 30th I went to throw my waste paper in the containers a couple of streets from here. Next to them was a big bag. I was curious and peeked inside. Inside were several dishes and a statue. I hesitated for a short moment and then I took the statue and took it home with me. It's about 21.5 cm (about 8.5 in) and weighs a tidy 1.3 kg (about 2.9 lb). No idea who would dispose of something like that. I would suppose that a religious relative died and the other relatives didn't have any use for such a figure and didn't know how to get rid of it in another way or didn't want to sell it. Strange though that this figure was dumped so shortly before Easter. What a timing!

Yesterday I went outside for a short time, walked our street and saw something round, golden and shiny on the sidewalk. I bent down to pick it up, believing it was one of the coins we have for shopping trolleys, although it obviously has a small hook, which those coins usually don't have. When I turned this thing around in my hand, I was baffled. It wasn't a coin, but a religious pendant. Fairly solid, too. I can't bend it. It's not a cheap toy. I put it on my keychain and wondered, why I found such religious things twice in such a short period of time. Me of all people.

I think, I'll hold on to both for a while, until I decided on what to do with them. Sell online?

Friday, 13th

When I was studying inclusive education ages ago, I made one part of an exam as a presentation about phobias, which is a fear that's often very strong and limiting and often tied to specific situations. My presentation also was about how to cure phobias.

Very fitting for this day today there actually is a term for people with the fear of the number 13. Such a fear is called triskaidekaphobia (from the Greek τρεισκαίδεκα, treiskaídeka = thirteen). There are actually places where there are only 12 floors of a building or they skipped the 13^th floor and the buttons on an elevator only shows floor 12 followed by 14.

There is also paraskevidekatriaphobia (from Latin parasceuē or Greek αρασκευή, parascēves = Friday), the fear of Friday, 13^th. Movies like the series of horror movies “Friday, 13th” certainly don't help with that fear.

Fun fact: The fear of long words, maybe like the two phobias mentioned above, is called hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia. A made-up word from the wrong spelling of the English “hippopotamus”, the Latin “monstrum” (unusually large; monster), the Latin “sesqui” (= a foot and a half) and “pedal” from Latin “pedālis” (= the foot or part belonging to the foot). One and a half foot probably a figurative way of describing the length of the word. Actually in German the part “sesquipedalio” is spelled with 2 “p”: “sesquippedalio”. Probably a misspelling and through copy and paste people just spread it on.

Jews maybe don't understand such fears very much. Saturday is Shabbat for them, meaning their day of rest at the end of the week. They start celebrating that starting Friday evening. Also Bar Mitzvah, the Jewish coming of age ritual, is typically celebrated on the Shabbat after the boy has had his 13^th birthday. The Bat Mitzvah for girls is celebrated when they're 12 years old.

The Good Friday on the other hand is not really a good day for Christians, since it's the day of the crucifixion of Jesus. Even the economy, which could otherwise probably be called fairly rational, called several bad days “Black Friday”, either specific days of an economy crisis or stock market crash.

Thirteen by itself is often considered as not a good number. Jesus had 12 apostles. The day and the night are structured in 12 hours. The year has 12 months. So thirteen is often considered as “the devil's dozen”. Looking at it from a mathematical point of view, 13 is a prime number. Which means a whole number greater than 1 that cannot be made by multiplying other whole numbers.

These are only a few examples and possible explanations why specifically Friday, 13^th is considered to be such a bad day. Although you can find studies on the internet from insurance companies for example that show that statistically there are no more accidents (material damage or damage to persons) on a Friday, 13^th. The reason could possibly be though, because some are actually so scared of this specific day that they take that day off work and stay home, much like others who reportedly plan their holiday in such a way that they don't go on a Friday, 13^th.

I myself learned from a fairly young age that Friday, 13^th is a normal day and not necessarily something bad will happen on that day. In primary school I was part of the recorder group and once we rehearsed for a play on the supposedly bad day. The rehearsal when without anything bad happening.

When I was studying however there was something funny when one of our professors said good-bye to us on the last lesson before the exam telling us that we'll see each other again on Friday, 13^th for the exam. Cries of shock broke out in class then. Obviously we all knew somehow that the exams would be on a Friday and also that we had exams on the 13^th. But those two bad days were not in our heads together as Friday, 13^th, until the professor said his good-bye!

Fun facts:

1. Each year there is at least 1, but no more than 3 Fridays on the 13^th of a month!
2. If the year is no leap-year and February has a Friday, 13^th, so will March and November!
3. The shortest interval between 2 Friday, 13^th is exactly 4 weeks! Namely when fun fact number 1 applies with the days between February and March, since February only has 28 days.
4. The longest interval between 2 Friday, 13^th is exactly 61 days or 14 months! That's when the day is in August. Then the next bad day is only in October the following year. Or if the day is in June with the next Friday, 13^th only being in September the following year.

How is Friday, 13^th for you? Did something bad happen to you on this day? Or did actually something good happen to you on such a day? Do you think about this date or is it just a normal day like any other for you?

Happy Friday, 13^th everyone!

M&M: The Legend Of 1900

"You're never really done for, as long as you've got a good story and someone to tell it to."

The trumpet player Max Tooney (Pruitt Taylor Vince) tries to sell his trumpet in a shop. The shop owner (Peter Vaughan) actually wants to close the shop at that moment, but grants Max to play the trumpet for one last time. Max plays a melody which sounds familiar to the shop owner, who heard it on a broken matrix he found in an old piano. Max says that this matrix shouldn't actually exist and that's how he starts telling the shop owner the story of 1900.

1900 isn't a number but a man. As a baby he was left by his mother on the Virginian, a ship that was going back and forth between America and Europe. Danny Boodman (Bill Nunn), a worker on the ship, finds the boy in a box and raises him. Since Danny found the boy on the first month of the new century, he calls him that. Danny never registers the boy at any office, for fear they may take him away. When 1900 is eight years old, Danny dies from an accident. After that the boy hides so well that nobody can find him. When he's seen again, he's playing the piano perfectly and moving everyone. So he ends up playing in the band on the ship to earn himself some money. In the first class he is more or less playing from notes, in third class he's playing totally free and his own melodies. Although he's never registered somewhere, more and more people on land hear about his ingenious playing. That's how Jelly Roll Morton (Clarence Williams III) also hears of 1900 and challenges him to a duel. 1900 however has no idea how such a duel works.

One day Max leaves the ship again and loses contact with 1900. But when Max hears they're going to destroy the Virginian in short time, he goes looking for his old friend.

Will 1900 ever leave the ship? Who'll win the duel? Will Max find 1900 again? Those are questions only you can answer to yourself by watching the movie.

It's a bit curious that this movie from the year 1998 runs more than two hours when the book on which the movie is based is only about 80 pages long written by Alessandro Baricco. The book is thought to be a monologue, a one-man-theatre-play, which is why it also includes some directions. The trumpet player is called Tim Tooney in the book and he tells the story as a flashback, similar to the movie.

At first I was sceptical about such a long movie. But I was very positively surprised and the story totally captivated me, so the movie wasn't tedious for me. If you like piano music and/or movies about friendship, you might enjoy this movie.

Hello darkness, my old friend