"Black Snake Moan" and a Nashville Kats' Game

I spent this weekend in Nashville for a death penalty seminar, which allowed me to get ahead on my Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits for the year and provided me some valuable practice tips even for non-capital cases. Over the weekend, I got some free movie tickets from a friend, so we went to see "Black Snake Moan", starring Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, and Justin Timberlake. This move is about a man (Jackson) whose wife leaves him for his brother who then finds a badly beaten Christina Ricci on the side of the road near his house. Jackson makes it his mission to cure Ricci's "wickedness" (i.e., sex, drinking, and drugs) that got her almost beaten to death. It's very graphic in terms of language and sex, and there are some definite holes in the plot and many things that make no sense whatsoever (including the ending). That said, it's a very entertaining movie, Ricci is both wild and hot (if sleazy), Jackson is great and funny as always, and Timberlake...well, he's a complete wuss of a little boy trying to play a man in his role, and he pulls it off well. It's worth going to see as a matinee, but not as an eight dollar or more prime time movie, and it wouldn't kill anyone to wait for the rental.

I also went to a Nashville Kats game this afternoon, and it was fun, although pretty different from the normal NCAA and NFL games I usually watch. For one thing, there was much more scoring, with a total of 17 touchdowns scored between the two teams (Nashville won 69-55). It's definitely a fan-friendly atmosphere (the players and cheerleaders are very accessible and there are plenty of fan contests with decent prizes to be won), and there were some wicked hits along the boards, which is what the AFL has instead of sidelines. Unfortunately, I have a pretty trained football eye, at it looked to me to be mostly a scrimmage between college level players on an indoor field half the size of a regular football field, so it didn't do that much for me. Also, the concessions are WILDLY overpriced...ten bucks for a little BBQ sandwich and a diet soda that might have been worth $3.50 on a good day is not a way to entice the fans to eat there. I'm glad I had the experience, but unless I have a date who is crazy about going to a game, I probably won't be going to another one...it just isn't that fabulous. All in all though, outside of some of the skull-numbingly boring lectures from the seminar, it was another good weekend in the life o' Chris.