Markinson's gone, there is no Markinson.

So no trial for us! We got a call really late in the game that our client was (amongst other things) off his meds and, in fact, gone.

My friend who is lead counsel got a call from the caseworker while I was stapling my final motions (natch) and at one point he leaned over and made a motion with his hand. At first I thought he was telling me to stop with the papers because he couldn't hear. Then I realized he was saying stop with the papers because it doesn't matter.

On the plus side, our client did go back to his caseworker but because he had been off his meds for more than a handful of days, there was no way he could go to court and certainly no way you'd put him in front of a jury. It takes time to stabilize with what he's got. It's frustrating, I'm sure, to be in his condition because he went off his meds in the first place because he was feeling so good. So he felt like he didn't need them anymore. Apparently, this is extremely common with people who take meds to be on an even keel and doesn't surprise me in the least.

But it was very bad timing.

On the plus side, we still went into court and had to argue to keep a warrant from issuing (cause he's not there like he's supposed to be) and we tried to argue a few other things as well. We had a fairly decent judge and we won the small battle, which was the most important thing for the client at this stage.

So since the night before trial opened up considerably, I thought I'd see The Artist.



Surprising to no one, it was fantastic and very cute.

I was a little nervous because it was a packed theater, so I was worried people would be easier to hear mumbling, hacking, etc., since it's a 98% silent movie. There is music, however, so I probably had nothing to fear. But what was great was that the audience was not only held captive and completely silent, they were really into it.

I know because there was one moment in particular (no spoilers) that was quite an intense set-up and there were more than a handful of sighs of relief afterwards. Hee hee, it actually made me giggle and made the whole thing even better. Ah, sigh, it's so rare when an audience actually is a good thing.



Also, some useless trivia for you--the house they use for the leading lady's house was actually Mary Pickford's house. (And at one point the leading man is watching an old silent film of his, but I recognized it as Douglas Fairbanks' The Mask of Zorro.)

I don't think I would go so far as to say I need to own it, but I could easily sit through it again. Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo were really perfect. I will be severely disappointed if either is not nominated by the Academy on Tuesday and furthermore, I think Dujardin abso-fucking-lutely deserves the win. What great expressions.

But here's a clip about everyone's favorite star...Uggie the dog! I start to feel a little bad right about the time in the clip where he rides the skateboard standing up, but then again, he also probably has a fairly pampered life. And the kissing thing is ridiculously adorable, I'm sorry.