I just got through watching an excellent film noir. It's always a great feeling I get when I've just finished a good movie. It's like the time I finished Casablanca, Rear Window and Vertigo — all for the first time. The film was thoroughly entertaining. I only hope my next film noir is as good as this one.

For my first film noir minus the patronage of my favorite actor, Humphrey Bogart, I opted for Double Indemnity — released just last week on DVD for the first time. In fact, the movie has been sitting at the bottom of my queue for months. I added it shortly after watching The Big Sleep for the second time, when I got that craving for a new film noir. I thought maybe they lost all the DVDs or something, but thankfully it made it to my house today and I couldn't want to take the DVD for a spin.

In case you didn't know, double indemnity is an instance where an insurance company will pay double in case of accidental death. Knowing this, you can surmise that Double Indemnity involves just about the sexiest subject in Hollywood: insurance fraud. Oh boy, it does, and you can bet your whole claim that it's sexy. The film stars Fred MacMurray as the lusty insurance salesman Walter Neff, who is struck by femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson (beautifully played by the sexy Barbara Stanwyck).

The story is very dark, obviously. Phyllis is unhappy with her husband, Mr. Dietrichson, and Neff sees a chance to score the dame and a cash payout. By pawning off an accident policy on Mr. Dietrichson before he takes a trip to Palo Alto traveling by train (an instance in which accidental death results in double indemnity), Phyllis and Neff set him up for murder. But, as you can imagine, no murder is perfect.

Neff soon finds his murder plot unraveling as his boss, Barton Keyes (played by the film legend Edward G. Robinson), quickly smells a fink. Uncovering inconsistencies that seemed so trivial to Walter before the plot, Keyes soon has a noose around Phyllis' neck and the neck of some other guy, an accomplice Keyes knows is involved. The pressure is on for Neff, who realizes all too soon how rotten he's become, even though Phyllis was always a step ahead.

It's a fabulous film and anyone who is up for a saucy jaunt through the mind of a seedy insurance salesman, look no further than Double Indemnity. It's enough to make you look twice before signing that policy with your significant other's pen.

Phyllis: We're both rotten.
Walter Neff: Only you're a little more rotten.

Well, having checked another goal for the year off my list (climbing Mt. Whitney), it's time to look ahead. I know I have resolved to running the inaugural Georgia Marathon, but that's like months away. I can't even start seriously training for it until November (which, damn, is so much sooner than I think, you know?) For now, I'm so looking forward to my next vacation...

On September 16, on what will be a grueling, unpleasant day, I will be flying to Paris, France. I've been meaning to do this for so long! Almost a year and a half ago, when I was visiting my expatriate friend Nicole in Marietta, Ga., I promised her that that summer I would go to see her Angers, France. Sadly, my search for a job went on a bit longer than I had hoped, so I had to nix the trip for that year. Since I am happily employed and have a second week of vacation to spare (my first week was spent seeing friends and family in Georgia), I am going to Europe!

It's not going to be one of those frou-frou trips you might be thinking about. While I will be spending some time in Paris, I will be mostly hanging out with Nicole in Orleans, which is not very far south of Paris. We've been exchanging e-mails and I'm getting more and more pumped about my trip. The last time I saw her, over a pitcher of margaritas at Taco Mac, I promised to enjoy some fine French hops with her (I am not a fan of beer so she will have the opportunity of deflowering me). That's really all I have in mind to accomplish while I'm visiting, but I'm sure she has some ideas for me as well.

I have been ruing the day of my departure, how exactly I'm supposed to get to San Francisco at 8 a.m. has confounded me. I know I can just park in long-term parking, but that's not very appealing to me. A coworker has offered to take me along with her to catch my flight but I may have to take a train back to Visalia. It's kind of exciting...

So yah, just to say what's next for me, it's France! A whole week in France. I'll be sure to post photos and chime in now and then (God knows I won't be able to work a phone card). Au revoir!

I always thought that Angelina Jolie was like a modern-day Helen of Troy. She's so beautiful, and it is almost destiny that Paris (in this case Brad Pitt) abducts her and makes her his forever.

Well, all that aside, guess who looks like Angelina Jolie (according to some silly computer analysis). Me!

I always knew I was beautiful. I'm waiting for my Trojan to come wisk me away. I'm sure that Trojan will be here any day now...

It's been a while since I've had any "good news," so I thought I'd offer up something different for a little change of pace. I'm proud to say this comes from our very own Visalia Times-Delta.

Siblings admit to burying mother
By David Castellon
Visalia Times-Delta

An autopsy has yet to verify whether the body of a woman found last week buried behind a Springville home is 91-year-old Acevia Crafts, but court records show that her children have told investigators it is their mother's body.

One of Acevia Crafts' three children, Addison Crafts, 56, admitted to a Tulare County sheriff's detective that he buried the body after she died in April of 2005 — and last week directed investigators to the spot, which he had covered with tires and fencing, the records state.

A sheriff's report containing this information was filed with the Tulare County Superior Court in the case of Addison Crafts and his two siblings, Arthur Crafts, 65, and Elaine Verna Crafts, 60, who stand accused of keeping their mother's death a secret in order to continue receiving her pension checks.

Over more than a year, those checks total about $15,000, according to documents filed with the court.

It's pretty sickening to conspire with your fellow siblings to pull some Weekend at Bernie's trick on your dead mother just so you can continuse to finance your rural home. I can't peg exactly which tragedy best suits this melodrama, but I have a feeling it's King Leer.

[The court document] goes on to say that Elaine Crafts claimed she was disabled and had no other income, so she was sure she would lose her mother's house without the pension income. Even so, the sheriff's report states that that the 10-acre property was going to be foreclosed for failure to pay taxes.

Court records show that somebody from the Teachers' Retirement System asked Tulare County Adult Protective Services to arrange a check on Acevia Crafts after a pension fund representative called Elaine Crafts and believed she sounded too alert and oriented to be somebody with Alzheimer's disease.

Authorities have accused Elaine Crafts of pretending to be her mother over the phone.

A deputy first went to the Crafts' house on July 27, but Arthur and Addison Crafts refused to let the deputy speak with their mother, a sheriff's report states. Another attempt was made the next day, but nobody answered the door.

On Wednesday of last week a deputy and social worker from Adult Protective Services showed up at the house.

"Arthur [Crafts] went inside the residence, then returned holding a telephone. He told [the social worker] she could speak to Acevia over the phone," according to the Sheriff's report.

After the social worker insisted on seeing Acevia Crafts personally, she was allowed in, and a woman behind a partially open bedroom door claimed to be Acevia.

The social worker later told deputies that even with her limited view, the woman behind the door didn't appear to be old enough, so she "asked the woman to open the door so he could see her. The woman admitted to being Elaine."

Priceless...those guys are real winners.

Apologies for taking so long to write. I've been a very busy bee as far as running, last week I made it to 5 days. I took a nap today though, so maybe I will make it up with a Saturday run — we'll see. Even though my next marathon is over half a year away, I want to be in shape and prepared to start training...but more on that later.

Though I wish I could have seen it before I took on my own grueling 16-hour hike in the high Sierra, I watched High Sierra last week, a film noir staring none other than Humphrey Bogart. The movie was suggest to be my Jim Houck, our newspaper's city editor, but I had had my eye on it in the weeks leading to the Whitney hike. I didn't know much about it besides its suspenseful car chase up to Whitney portal, but any Bogie movie is worth checking out, I would venture to say.

The movie begins with Roy Earle, infamous crook and recently pardoned prisoner, being tapped for a big score. He agrees, drives across the country to sunny California (a trek I can identify with) and stops at Whitney Portal to meet with his associates. There, he meets the two men who will be working for him and also a young runaway Marie (Ida Lupino), a wide-eyed, wicked little woman who is smitten with Roy at the get go.

While casing the illustrious California resort they plan to swindle, Roy aids a family he had met earlier, along with their crippled daughter, Velma (Joan Leslie). Roy falls in love with Velma, and though she is in love with another man, Roy insists on financing the surgery that will grant her the freedom to walk and lead a normal life. After the procedure, Roy offers a sincere proposal to Velma, who soundly strikes it down, breaking his heart. Hurt, Roy returns to Marie and the boys to prepare for the job at hand.

Suffice to say, things do not go according to plan with the heist and soon the cops are onto Earle and Marie. While waiting for their cut from the score, Roy takes one last look at Velma following her recovery. She is engaged and sublimely happy, drunk and dismissive of Roy's lingering feelings, who leaves in a huff. Marie, loyal to Roy and curious of the other woman, provides comfort to Roy and intends to stick with him to the bitter end.

The movie is pretty dark, which I really liked. The way Earle gravitates toward Velma but soon finds himself fixed on Marie doesn't resound of that typical Hollywood romantic nonsense, which is probably what I enjoyed most about the film. Also, while planning the heist at Whitney Portal, Roy takes on an orphaned dog (Bogart's real-life pet at the time) which is said to be cursed, having its two previous owners die. The dog is fiercely loyal to Roy and offers a bit of levity to the film noir.

It's worth checking out, but I do make one suggestion: Don't watch it while throwing back shots of Malibu while entertaining a friend. Bogart is worth more than that.

It's absolutely crazy to think that a week ago I was still on Whitney. I've had a week to think about the experience (and produce a special Flash presentation of it for the Visalia Times-Delta which you can view here).

Several months ago, I was asked by Laura at work if I wanted to join her and others on a hike up Mt. Whitney, which she had surmounted less than a year prior at the time with another copy editor from the paper. I enthusiastically agreed, seeing it as an opportunity to do something truly unique in Tulare County. Mt. Whitney it just at the corner of the county in Sequoia National Park between the county and Inyo County and Inyo National Forest. Since I was in the midst of training for a marathon, the thought of topping a 22-mile hike up a 14,505 foot mountain seemed like a piece of cake. I was so wrong.

Hiking Mt. Whitney is not picnic. Aside from the head-pounding altitude, there are 96 relentless switchbacks that are seemingly never ending and so very discouraging. It took 16 hours to get off that freaking mountain, and in just a scant few paragraphs, I will attempt to boil down the experience for you.

We left for the hike on Saturday morning at 4 a.m. We didn't start the hike until 24 hours after this point, but it was important that we arrive to receive our hiking permit first thing in the morning and have a day of camping to acclimate ourselves to the vicious altitude (which, by nominal standards, isn't that bad. I mean, it's no Everest). You would think since Mt. Whitney is in the county, it would be a short drive away. Also, since it's the tallest mountain in the state and the whole 48 contiguous United States, you might think you would see it from my living room window. All not true. Mt. Whitney is on the far eastern side of the Sierra Nevada and Visalia is nestled on the Western side of the range. We had to drive south to Bakersfield to go around the whole freaking range an into Owens Valley, a graben.

Once we made it to Lone Pine, a small town ness led at the base of Mt Whitney (which was in plain view at this point), we went to get our permit. Interesting note about Lone Pine, it is where most of the Westerns during the Golden Age of Hollywood were filmed.

With permit in hand, Laura, myself and Tiffani (my boss at the paper) made our way up to the Whitney Portal where we were to camp. It was a short drive and my car handled it well (though it nearly overheated). The trail begins at 8,000 feet (Owens Valley, a high desert, is 4,000 feet). I wasn't being hammered by the elevation at this point and I spent most of Saturday relaxing, taking in the scenery and preparing my hiking pack.

We started out at 3 in the morning, waking up and having breakfast. The sky was absolutely breathtaking. I have never in my whole life seen such a complete view of the sky. Looking up at that moment made me wish we had reached the summit at midnight. It was truly amazing.

Starting the hike was pretty easy. The first three hours breezed by, and soon the sun was up and we were approaching Trail Camp. Most hikers will hike from the portal to Trail Camp before making the final ascent up the mountain. Oh, but not us...we had to do it on one day!

Once I reached the Whitney zone (which required the permit) and Trail Camp, the switchbacks were pretty difficult. They weren't too frequent until beyond Trail Camp, where an endless parade of switchbacks eventually made me a very unhappy camper. At this point, my head was throbbing from the elevation, we were much higher than we were at Alta Peak (nearly 12,000 feet in elevation). I would have to stop at several points just to take a breather until the pounding subsided (which quickly reached its fevered pitch whenever I started the ascent again). I was pretty far ahead of the others (Laura quit early on but Tiffani and her boyfriend Ethan were still with me), but as the elevation had more of an effect on me, I had to slow down and hike with the group.

We reached Trail Crest, a feat in of itself, and we entered Sequoia National Park on the western side of the mountain. I thought we were nearly done, but the trail continued for another two grueling hours (but minus the switchbacks, thankfully. Just a steady steep grade, oh joy!) At times during this point, Tiffani and Ethan were far ahead of me, as the elevation wreaked havoc on my head. I caught up though.

After what seemed like forever, we finally reached the summit and I plopped myself on a rock and enjoyed some lunch. Some fearless birds came along and shared some of my lunch with me, it was pretty cool. But, as is all too true with hikes like this, reaching the top is only half of the story. The hike down was just brutal.

I reached the trail head at just after 8 p.m. (we reached the summit at 1 p.m. but didn't leave until 2 p.m.) The hike down was by far the worst part. I relied heavily on my filter water bottle since I had run completely out of bottled water. By the time I reached Trail Camp, I had so many blisters on my feet, but I knew resting every few hundred feet would only mean my blistered would get worse having to endure longer on the mountain, so I tore it up on the way down. I didn't care how much my feet hurt, I wanted to be off that mountain as quickly as possible. I was so relieved when I reached my car, I felt like bursting into tears, that's how significant the moment was.

So, having reflected on the hike, I feel confident in saying the hike was so much worse than running a marathon. Granted, it was only 22 miles, but you have no idea how long a hiking mile is until you've actually tried it. It's no picnic. Also, at least the marathon was over in 5 hours. If I have to spend 16 hours on a mountain more than 2 miles from a comfortable tent and sleeping bag ever again in my life, it will be too soon.

But, who am I kidding? I said I'd never run a marathon again, and just this week I resolved to run the inaugural Georgia Marathon with Marilia on March 25, 2007. Who knows, I may be taking a trip up Whitney next year.

If you feel up to it, do let me know.

See all my photos posted at my Flickr page by clicking here.

Jesse: I've been to marriage counseling. I've done things I never thought I would have do: Lit candles, bought self help books, lingerie...
Celine: Did the candles help?
Jesse: Hell no.

A few months ago I watched Before Sunrise at the suggestion of my cousin Laura. I suppose I didn't have the blog at the time (maybe, I could have just been too lazy to write about it), but it was a good movie. I watch so movies so often now, a lot of times, when I sit down to watch one I don't give it the attention it deserves. Maybe I neglected Before Sunrise, but I know I liked it. Fortunately, I did not neglect Before Sunset. This one stuck.

It's so funny that I actually like an Ethan Hawke movie. I can't stand the guy. I honestly couldn't stand the first half of Before Sunrise for the sole reason that Ethan Hawke was parading on screen like a horny American college student. Hideous...but I got past it. His chemistry with Julie Delpy is great. They have such an endearing, consuming quality about them and you can't help but wish they were make it past sunrise.

Though the first movie ends with you wanting more, you get the payoff in Before Sunset, 9 years after Jesse and Celine's first encounter in Vienna. Hitting Paris as the last city in his European book tour, Jesse is just wrapping up a book signing and Q&A session when Celine drops by. This monumental occasion — seeing the woman that made the most memorable impact in his romantic life — is fumbled by the two of them. You expect the music to crescendo and the scene to be framed by the setting sun, but they handle the situation as anyone would. It's natural and the whole movie progresses as so.

Jesse has to go to the airport in an hour, and a quick coffee with Celine turns into a swift afternoon stroll through Paris. The two take a walk through a park, a boat ride down the Seine and engage in a tumultuous conversation on the ride back to her apartment and their final curtain call.

Jesse is married and Celine is involved, but neither is happy. The movie begins with the two happy to conceal these facts but as they eventually see how much they regret not seizing upon their moment 9 years earlier, the two break down so beautifully. It's a romantic, touching film.

I like it so much because I'm so jealous. My friend Nicole went to France and fell in love. I wish I could do something so romantic! I get to go to Paris in about a month to see Nicole, so I'll be on the lookout for horny French romantics, but I imagine the language barrier might be a problem. At least I have this movie to quench my thirst for good romance.

Celine: Baby, you are going to miss your plane.
Jesse: I know.

This entry is one small part reminiscence and one larger part wanting-to-blog but not sure whatfor.

A year ago today, it was my first day in Ohio after leaving Georgia after ten years. My time in Ohio was brief and fairly uneventful, but leaving Georgia was such a huge thing for me, it's just been on my mind. I'm glad I left, though. I feel like leaving proved to me that I could go anywhere. I'm sure one day California will seem dull, and knowing I have left Georgia with much success will mean that I could conceivably go anywhere. Anyways, that's my Georgia piece. Short and painless...

We're hiking up Whitney this weekend. Still not sure if we're doing it in one day or two. I'm aiming for one, which will be rough, but at least I can make it to work on Monday.

Since the Whitney portal is on the eastern side of the park in Inyo County (and there is no direct way to the east side without going around the whole mountain range), it's going to take us probably 4 hours just to drive there. We get to drive through Tehachapi, which was this neat city I blazed through when I was going from Vegas to Visalia.

I had a dream about Mt. Whitney last night. Something about it being almost like some rest stop in the highway, like those fiber glass dinosaurs on the side of some interstate. I know I'll be fine, hopefully it can help jump start my exercise routine which has been languid these past few weeks. The heat here has been positively unbearable, it's hard to motivate yourself to do anything.

Anyways, kudos to Shirley for this entry's photo element. I keep listening to "Cup of Coffee," and this photo always reminds me of that song.

Oh, and Diaspora sucks (ain't that right Jeremy).

P.S.: I thought I would post more pictures from Alta Peak. Check them out at my Flickr page here. One of these days I'm going to have to put in a module, maybe Padmini will have to show me how...