picked to serve

Today I was picked as an alternate for jury duty. I'm not happy being an alternate. That's like being a stand-in... all the work and none of the glory. Still... I can study human behavior without worrying about making a judgment.. I could have gotten out of the whole mess with a plea of "only God can judge us", but I have no working a/c and 40 bucks a day is 40 bucks.

If my friend hadn't said "step up to the plate", I might have given my usual excuse of being too stressed out to be a jurist, but citizen guilt took hold and I'm ready to bat.

While being screened as a potential jurist, I thought back to last nite's fun, seeing Bruno, the movie... Bruno, in hopes of transferring his Austrian tv host fame to LA, gets an extra spot playing a jury member on a tv show. His job is to sit quietly, but of course, Bruno plays to the camera, showing a myriad of bizarre over reactions to anything the actor- D/A. says. He even lights up and smokes.

Courts are by their nature very theatrical and I felt like cracking up any number of times while sitting up there... We had to tell the court what our profession was ... no surprise that no one admitted to being a housewife... unemployed, but not a housewife. Anyway, the guy behind me said he's a dj. When the lawyer asks him again if that's his work, he says yes, then mumbles under his breath, "I do it to stay out of trouble."

Surreal!

The DA asked me what kind of films I make..I should have said porn, but told the truth( after all I had had my right hand up in the air), documentaries... I didn't mention that one of my subjects, Abbie Hoffman, said he couldn't be tried by a jury of his peers as he had no peers...or something like that.

Can't say anymore as lips sealed... no speaky about the case.. good opportunity though to eat Vietnamese food on the lunch break. And ofcourse, step up to the plate.