Don’t freak, he’s not super close to my neighborhood. He’s super close to my old apartment (like, half a block away), but my new apartment is a good mile and a half out of range.
So, here’s a weird thing! There’s a serial killer in my neighborhood. He killed a nice older retired man walking his dog last Sunday morning on the sidewalk across the street from one of my friend’s houses (she was in back moving furniture when it happened, and came around the front to a dead body and a million police cars), and he killed a nice young man who worked at the grocery store the next night in the park by my old apartment.
The alderman and the mayor and the local police are all kind of scrambling. According to the police, they now have 40 detectives working on this one case. FORTY!!!! Plus the FBI and the ATF. How do they even fit in the same room together? I’m picturing a clown car effect as they all try to squeeze in around the same conference table, and then get stuck in the door on the way out.
They also keep saying in announcements either that the police are “blanketing” the neighborhood, or “saturating” the neighborhood, and I just want them to pick one metaphor or the other. Is it a prickly blanket of police officers, or a flowing river of police officers?
They told us to be aware of our surroundings, walk in groups, don’t look at your cell phone, etc. etc., the same thing they always tell you in police safety briefings. And which is completely useless in this case (he sneaks up and shoots you from behind, doesn’t matter if you are aware of your surroundings or not), but I guess it’s good general advice and they feel like they might as well repeat it while people are listening.
The big bold print police order from the announcement was “don’t isolate yourself in your home!” As in, go about your normal life and don’t lock up your doors and windows and huddle inside with all the lights out. But it got my back up immediately, because I refuse to take orders from the police!
Who are they to tell me what to do???? I was isolating myself in my home even before the serial killer showed up, I’m not going to stop now just because the police tell me not to! If I want to stay home and watch movies with my dog, I’m gonna do that! No police officer is gonna force me out into the world!
(I’m gonna stay home and watch pretty songs from movies about serial killers instead!)
So, there’s that in my life. What’s up in yours?
dontcallitbollywood 
Stay safe!
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Well, I have Dog Hazel to protect me.
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Oh my goodness! I hope the river and/or blanket of cops catch him soon!
One very underrated serial killer movie is The Minus Man with Owen Wilson and Janeane Garafalo. Owen Wilson is a drifter and multiple murderer who ends up settling at Brian Cox and Mercedes Ruehl’s house (both favorite actors of mine). Brian gets Owen a job at the post office, where Janeane also works. It is so understated, but creepy and suspenseful, and Owen Wilson makes a surprisingly effective serial killer. I think even if people don’t like movies about murderers, they might like this one.
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When I was writing this, I was surprised by how few Indian serial killer movies I could think of versus America. It’s strange how we have such a strong affinity for these stories, there are dozens and dozens of American films about serial killers, each with a slightly different angle to them.
On Sat, Oct 6, 2018 at 7:45 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I know much less about Indian films, but the only one I could think of was Main aur Charles, which I enjoyed.
Yes, America is obsessed with all kinds of killers, for sure.
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Oh, and of course our beloved Baazigar is technically a serial killer too.
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I was thinking about that! But he isn’t the kind of ritualized monster serial killer, more a murderer who had a motivation to kill multiple people. Like,there was another murder near me yesterday and the reports and this awkward “Murder! But, you know, just a normal one, not the serial killer, so don’t worry about it” tone. Baazigar is just a “normal” murderer, nothing to worry about.
On Sat, Oct 6, 2018 at 8:58 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Stay safe!
Raman Raghav was based on a real life serial killer. There’s a great Tamil movie of Kamal Hassan & Sridevi where he’s a sauve, young rich man who wood & kills women & plant roses where they are buried. I can’t recall the name but it’s super creepy.
Reading all the Twitter stories on the new wave of #MeToo. It has hit across media industries. AIB is burnt, Chetan Bhagat is burnt, Kanan Gill is burnt. Some of the things being accused treads on very fine line. The more scary ones are where judges, senior editors, journalists preying upon young newbie women. Good to see that media houses have on a very basic level acknowledged that there’s a zero tolerance policy for such actions.Having worked in a firm where there were very strict policies on sexual abuse & treatment of women & minorities in general, some of these stories are absolutely shocking & inconceivable to me. There’s also a very well researched story by Huffington Post on the Vikas Bahl victim & what exactly went on at Phantom. On a lighter note Sonam Kapoor is off Twitter for a good reason🙂
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Looks like a big variety of stories. Vikas Bahl is awful, and also an interesting look at how accountability an reporting structures work in that kind of a company. Kind of proud of myself, it’s what I thought, no HR department and no board of directors and no chain of command, she just had to convince one person. Compared to one of the other stories I read at one of the large media houses, where it went to an HR department that completely buried it. In this case, there was a nightmare of convincing Anurag Kashyap which eventually got down to convincing his girlfriend, but it wasn’t necessarily any worse than working for a larger “professional” company that neatly hides these things away if they choose to.
For the other stories, I don’t like the messiness of mixing in aggressive tweets trying to start an affair with an acquaintance with a sexual assault by an employer followed by years of harassment at work. Which is my same problem with Me Too in America, too many stories landing all at once and you end up just seeing the list of names and not taking them on a case by case basis.
On Sat, Oct 6, 2018 at 8:32 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I agree it kinda puts everything from minor misdemeanours to ‘true-blue’ harassments(for want of a better term)in the same bucket. Also the cases in the comedy scene is used by anti-liberals(again for want o better term)to dismiss every progressive commentary as fake & pseudo. But if these are the price paid for ensuring Indian men keep themselves in check at all times while they are with any woman, I think it’s a still worth it.
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Playing devil’s advocate, it also opens up the possibility of going the other way, if sexual assault is thrown in the same basket as pushy texts, then it might be minimized.
My real concern, in the Indian context in particular, is that it ends up swinging back around to Purdah. Men are terrible and dangerous, woman can’t handle being alone with them, etc. etc.
On Sat, Oct 6, 2018 at 9:10 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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On a different note, I’m off to watch Chekka Chivantha Vaanam. It was really tough deciding among AndhaDhun, CCV & 96. I hope we made the right decision.
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I hope so too! If nothing else, pretty sure CCV has the best music.
On Sat, Oct 6, 2018 at 9:16 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Nooo… Actually 96 songs are more popular… Kadhale song from 96 is a rage in TN and neighboring states..
https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/kaadhale-kaadhale-song-96-out-were-playing-it-loop-already-85687
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Sigappu Rojakkal (Red Roses) is the title of this Kamal Haasan movie, and it’s indeed super creepy. I read about it once and couldn’t belive they did movie like this, so I ended watching the most important parts. And it was remade in hindi with Rajesh Khanna and Poonam Dhillon.
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I was isolating myself in my home even before the serial killer showed up, I’m not going to stop now just because the police tell me not to! 😂😂😂
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Your post is actually kind of scary….yes, please stay safe. On the harassment front: Did you see what that dread Kangana posted? She said she knew all along and tried to help and now, she she has been right all along! Wait, what??? She has gone public on all sorts of stuff and she said NOTHING publically about this. She infuriates me.
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Yeah, I looked up her original comment and posted it in here somewhere. It was neutral and fine, harassment is terrible and we should support people who speak up, but remember there is another side to the story. But now with this, it makes me think either she should have spoken back then, or she should have just said nothing. Put out a neutral comment just feels like hypocrisy.
On Sat, Oct 6, 2018 at 7:06 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Exactly. She is the epitome of a fake feminist. But, as I think you have also said, I think she is in fact a sociopath so that’s a whole other ball game.
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I don’t think sociopath necessarily, but I could easily see her having some version of manic depression or schizophrenia which might make her less able to feel empathy.
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