Review: Cropsey

Growing up in Maryland I went for two summers to a sleep away camp called Camp Airy. At Camp Airy we were told the legend of Cropsey, a man with an axe or a chainsaw for an arm (I can’t remember which or how they hell it was attached to his upper arm) who found kids at summer camps and killed them. This story was told over a campfire or some other ominous setting where someone would either jump out and scare all of us or we’d be sent to bed right after the legend to sleep on it.

Last summer I was in Denver seeing The Kids Are All Right and I noticed a poster in the window of the theatre for a movie called Cropsey. Immediately, dark summer nights from Camp Airy came back to me. The information I found on the movie explained that it was a documentary into the legend of Cropsey and its origins. Last week I decided to look to see if Cropsey was available on Netflix and sure enough you could stream it. So I did.

There are a few variations on the legend of Cropsey. Most of them involve a madman, usually an escapee from a mental hospital, who tracks down children in the woods. It’s all very disturbing, even to me now, years later. I was terrified as a kid, all alone in the woods with some kids I met eight days before.

Cropsey, the documentary, tells the story of a twisted man who did unspeakable things to mentally ill children on Staten Island. He is the basis of the legend I heard so many times at camp and though his actual story doesn’t involve a hook or an axe or a chainsaw for an arm, the disappearances of children have spawned folklore that has made its way through summer camps up and down the East Coast.

Cropsey wasn’t scary but it wasn’t for the feint of heart. The man that the legend of Cropsey is based on is a sick and twisted individual who did unspeakable things. This movie is one of those that you watch, store it in the back of your brain somewhere, don’t sleep for a night or two and then never visit again. 

I’ll leave those days in the woods where they are. If you’ve ever heard the legend of Cropsey, this is a very interesting look into the truth behind the urban legend.

iPad Notes

I just wrote an 800+ word review of the iPad on my iPad. Here are some notes:

  • I hit the letter P instead of the delete key easily over 200 times.
  • Typing on the iPad is slow compared to my keyboard even though they’re nearly the same size.
  • I use less fingers to type on the iPad than I do to type on my keyboard.
  • I’m hesitant to write papers on the iPad, anything other than a quick note or a draft I’d rather do on my laptop

Other than that I love the iPad. I plan on using it regularly when I’m on campus rather than lugging around my Macbook Pro.

I don’t put too much stock in my mouse. The Mighty Mouse though, it frustrated the hell out of me. The Magic Mouse is to Apple what David is to Michelangelo (if Michelangelo’s previous sculpture was absolute rubbish). I know the prediction I’m about to make is wrong, knowing Apple, but I don’t see them making another mouse for a very long time. The Magic Mouse feels good in my hand and the scrolling is beautiful. I was never one for those wonky Logitech mouses with the eight buttons scattered around. This thing feels like a mouse should feel. Well done, Apple.

I don’t put too much stock in my mouse. The Mighty Mouse though, it frustrated the hell out of me.

The Magic Mouse is to Apple what David is to Michelangelo (if Michelangelo’s previous sculpture was absolute rubbish). I know the prediction I’m about to make is wrong, knowing Apple, but I don’t see them making another mouse for a very long time.

The Magic Mouse feels good in my hand and the scrolling is beautiful. I was never one for those wonky Logitech mouses with the eight buttons scattered around. This thing feels like a mouse should feel. Well done, Apple.