The Conspirator

Last night I saw a screening of Robert Redford's new movie, "The Conspirator." It's the true story of Mary Surratt, who ran a boarding house in Washington, DC. Her son John Surratt was friends with John Wilkes Booth, who killed Abraham Lincoln. She was arrested and tried for her role in the conspiracy that led to his assassination.

The movie was packed with big names. Robin Wright, formerly married to Sean Penn, played Mary Surratt. She was amazing. And unrecognizable. She sure doesn't look like Buttercup from "The Princess Bride." James McAvoy plays her attorney, who was a captain in the Union army. He starts out not wanting to defend her, but as a lawyer, believing in the rule of law and the US Constitution even in the time of war, really works to make sure the trial is fair and legal.

Since it's a true story, not gonna feel like I'm spoiling anything to say that it does not end well for many characters.

The screening was held as part of the American Bar Association conference. I went with a friend who is attending the conf. So the audience was largely lawyers. Talk about a sympathetic audience.

As I was watching, I wondered if it was filmed in Savannah. The houses where the main floor was on the second, not the easily flooded first floor, seemed familiar. And the fort made me think of Ft. Pulaski. After some internet searching, it turns out that it was filmed in Savannah.

Other big names: Kevin Kline, Alexis Bledel (Rory!), Colm Meaney (O'Brien!), Justin Long (can't stop thinking of him as the Mac guy), Tom Wilkinson. Other actors whose faces I recognized but couldn't place until the credits were Jonathon Groff (Jesse from Glee -- does good smarm), and James Badge Dale from Rubicon. I recognized Norman Reedus right away, who played Darryl in the Walking Dead.

The message was pretty clear that even in the time of war, the rule of law and habeas corpus, etc must be upheld, that everyone deserves a fair trial, and no one should be railroaded into a conviction to satisfy national blood lust. The ghost of Guantanamo Bay and the war of terror was pretty clear. Not a whole lot of subtlety in the movie. The Conspiracy could refer to those who plotted to kill Lincoln and to the Secy of War and the military tribunal that was determined to punish someone.

All in all, it was a good movie. I'd definitely recommend it when it comes out. If nothing else, for Robin Wright's performance.

Arty Savannah trip

Friday and Saturday Husband and I were in Savannah, Georgia. Husband was there for work, I was there to keep him company.

We left Atlanta Thursday evening and drove as the sun went down, and the full moon came up. Sang along to the iPod. It was very enjoyable.


Savannah was hot and humid, as usual. Tropical Storm Cristobal is off the coast of Georgia and the Carolinas, randomly sprinkling us with rain, increasing the humidity. Ugh.


As Husband went off to his meetings, my first stop was the art supply shop. Savannah is the home of the Savannah College of Art and Design, and the Telfair museum. I bought a sketch book and a case of colored pencils. I have lots of colored pencils already, as well as sketch pads, but forgot to pack them, even though I had planned to come to the art supply shop. But mostly to get pottery tools, which I did get.


Second stop: the Telfair museum of art. There was an exhibit by William Christenberry, photographer and sculpter. Loved his work, especially his dream house installations. I really liked this piece: Alabama Wall I.

I sketched it, abstracting it to blocks of colors. I think it would make a very cool quilt or afghan.


Third stop was Wild Fibre yarn shop. I have to admit I was pretty disappointed. They had very little yarn to offer, though I do like that the yarn was organized by color. So all the celadon greens in one cubby, linen yarn, mohair, wool, all put together, and so on.


Years ago, I went to this shop and was introduced to Cherry Tree Hill and Colinette yarns for the first time. I bought a skein of Point Five Colinette yarn, in the Jamboree colorway. This was the first time I bought expensive yarn (did not realize how little yardage I got for my money) but oh the colors! Oranges, greens, purples, all colors outside my comfort zone. It's a skein of souveneir yarn.


By 3pm the heat and humidity got to me, so Husband and I met up at the hotel room, rested a bit in the airconditioning, then went for dinner at Il Pasticcio. Good, as always.


We finished the evening by going down to the Savannah riverfront, watching the sun set, the container ships and river ferries float by, the people walking around, and eating an icecream cone.


Saturday we headed out to Tybee Island and the pier. The beach was full, so different from our last trip there in December 2007. There was a family reunion going on, which is nice. Think of the great family memories that will make for them.


The sun was hot, we had too much alcohol too early in the day, and by the time we got back to Atlanta, I had a pounding headache.


But still, it was another great trip with Husband and I'm glad I went.

Pictures from Savannah -- complete with wildlife

Over the weekend, Husband and I went to Savannah, Georgia. Saturday night we had dinner with his secretary who was having a girls' weekend with her mother in Savannah too. It's kind of interesting to go bar hopping with your husband, his secretary, and her mom. We saw plenty of wildlife, all of the human kind.

Sunday morning, despite the multiple margaritas on Saturday night, Husband and I got up at the crack of dawn to go to Fort Pulaski national park. A few weeks ago, Husband was in Savannah for work (I couldn't go with him because of my work) and went out to Fort Pulaski early to get some exercise in before starting the day. He saw deer and wanted me to go with him this time.

We got to the entrance to the park and found that the gate at the bridge to the park was still closed. So we left the car on the side of the road and walked across the bridge. Didn't take any pictures but is was nice and peaceful with river (pretty sure not the Savannah River) below us and one loon. The bird, not a person.

Here is our first encounter with deer at the gate to the visitors center and the fort itself. Conveniently, but unintentionally, Husband's head is in the foreground, for scale. Deer are kind of big. At least I think so, since the biggest animals I see are cats and dogs.

The brick wall doesn't go much beyond what's in the picture, so we just went around it and walked over to the fort. Here you can see the damage from cannon balls way back from Civil War times (I think).

Then we saw this at the edge of the moat:

We didn't get too close to the heron and thank goodness for the zoom lens on the camera. We turned away to look across the field and when we turned back, the bird was gone. Silent the whole time.

Here's deer in the morning mist, as the sun's coming up.On the way back, the mist burned off and we saw these in a clearing by the parking lot:

We took a little path off to the side and it took us down to the Savannah River, where we saw this container ship go by. Global commerce in action.
On the way back to the car, we saw
I guess the gate to the park was now open. And clearly cars don't bother them but people do. They were quite wary of us -- see blurry picture above of them running away from us.

Here's the best pictures of all:
Yes, many pictures of deer, but we're done now.

After Fort Pulaski, we went to Tybee Island for breakfast at the Breakfast Bar (or was is Club?). Then on to the beach, Husband's favorite part.

First stop, the pier, where a little girl found us fascinating and came right up to us to just stare. Then a guy caught this:

Guy was nice enough to bring it closer, saying "look at the eyes!"Here's they're using plyers to take the hook out of it.

Then they threw it back into the water. It landed belly up and slowly we could see it's white-diamond shapve sink into the green water.

After a while, Husband and I went down to the beach where we saw a seagull walking away from a dead fish. I wanted to tell it there were starving seagulls in China:

As we're walking along, I noticed that we were paralleling Husband's tire tracks in the sand. Because we were just strolling, the tracks were kind of meandering and drifted one way and then another, with little turns. So we made a little artwork. I call it "Overlapping Tire Tracks."

First Husband rolled across the sand, making sure to put in interesting curves. Then he turned around and came back, being careful to retrace on tire track. Here he is coming back around for another pass:

And then another pass. The pier is in the back ground, with a little gazebo at the end and a little dark blue sliver of the Atlantic Ocean.

Back and forth, back and forth. And now the final piece. I like the ends, where he pivoted around, creating the outer curve and little divots of sand:



And to end this post, I wrote this in the sand: