…she’s good enough…to me?
Mother do you think she’s dangerous…to me?
Mother will she tear your little boy apart?
Mother will she break my heart?

First things first. TGIF! Another week down and another start to weekend freedom. Hell yeah!

Its funny how something in life whether its a smell, sight, or even a mood will trigger something in your head to recall a particular song. Then once that song becomes the daily ear worm and you sing or hum it for the twenty-seven thousand time, it will bring you back to a memory of a time of your life.

I can remember the very first time I learned about Pink Floyd and The Wall. Where I lived, where I went to school, the color of my bicycle. I can recall where I was in high school when I actually bought The Wall on cassette tape and the car I drove and where I worked after school.

I wouldn’t necessarily even consider myself a big Pink Floyd fan. There is no denying the masterpiece of The Wall or Dark Side of the Moon. I was just never a huge fan, but you have to admit when a song can stick with you and make such an impression that lasts throughout your life, I guess as a creative artist you have done your job well.

Jesus, now that I think about it, Wish You Were Here, is like my  personal kryptonite. It’s like the movie equivalent of the ending of Forest Gump. I’ll listen or watch each one a hundred times alone, but not with a girl or any other person in the room. Just cant get through them. Sorry, not sorry.

Moving along.

I was going to wait until I blogged about this next bit but I cant. I am currently reading the book Life After Death, by Damien Echols. (Amazon Link). The name may sound familiar to you, if not thats ok too. I’ll help you out.

Damien Echols is one of the West Memphis Three. Damien spent 18 years on death row for the wrongful conviction of murdering three small boys in West Memphis, Tennessee. Damien’s case became the subject of three HBO documentaries, and countless high profile supporters such as Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder and others who took up the cause to see that justice was served in freeing Damien and his other two friends from their wrongful convictions.

In a nutshell and long story short. The West Memphis Three were three high school kids who were convicted of murdering three eight year old boys, without a single piece of physical evidence linking any of them to the murders. They were your typical minority, goth-ish, emo-ish, different kids in school.  Nothing more. Well a little more, they were poor and in one of the cases of the three mentally handicapped and being easily manipulated into a false confession.

Want to see just how much our legal system can come off the tracks and do harm? Look no further then this case.

Anyway, last year the three kids (now men) were release from prison. New DNA evidence was collected that showed none of the convicted were at the crime scene at all. The only DNA that was at the crime scene was that of one of the dead kids step fathers, and another person whom was providing the step father an alibi whose testimony later is refuted by a number of eyewitnesses stating he was seen with all the victims an hour before the murders took place.

You would think after falsely accusing then convicting three innocent people for these crimes and after eighteen years of incarceration the state of Arkansas would want to make amends? Not quite. The state of Arkansas after ruining these kid lives for eighteen years, took one more swipe at them. In a very rare circumstance the state of Arkansas made the West Memphis Three take what is called an Alford Plea. The three had to basically plead guilty to three counts of murder, but maintaining their innocence and they would then be released for time served. This allowed them to get out of jail, but not be able to sue the state of Arkansas for the false conviction. Had they not taken the plea deal a new trial could have lasted another five years.

Damien, who was thought to be the ringleader of the three and sentenced to death, has written a book about his childhood and death row experiences. When I tell you Damien wrote the book, I mean just that. No ghost writer. Its his words 110%. When I tell you I have been a voracious reader the last twenty years of my life I’m seriously not kidding. If it wasn’t for an Amazon Kindle I would have twenty bankers boxes of books instead of the eight in the garage now. Damien can write and he does it well. No not well, its damn good. No wait, not damn good, this guy can fucking write and tell a story.

We all have problems and issues we have to overcome in life. Damien shows us what real problems are and how he overcame them.  Damien illustrates how he survived death row and is now moving forward with an incredible outlook on life. Want to read a great story of hope, survival, and perseverance? Read this book! I got the book last night I am halfway through it. I can’t put it down. Its that good, seriously.

You guys have a great weekend. I need to go finish this book. I also need to make a chocolate peanut butter cake to show off to one of my bakerella friends. She thinks she owns the baking heavyweight title belt because one time she stacked a bunch of stale chocolate chip cookies together and called it cake. Ok the cookies werent stale and homemade, but damn it, I am the Rocky Balboa to her Apollo Creed when it comes to desert and cake and she is going down for the count!

Ding Ding!