Plugged In

Ramblings Post #394
I love music. Music sets the vibe. The right song can soothe the soul. The right song can set a party off. The right song can make a quiet, intimate evening head in the right direction, if you know what I mean. The right song can move a crowd and change an empire. The right song can bring THAT memory and suddenly you're transported to the time and place. And the wrong song can sit in your ear for hours, circling and distracting, muddling your thoughts to no end, because you know it's in there...somewhere, you just need to remember it. Music has power.

So, I few weeks ago I guess, I stumbled across a video snippet of a UK rap group that took me by surprise a bit. It was good. I'm talking way better than a lot of the stuff I hear on radio. And me being me, I took a trip through ye olde internet and found the group and watched the whole video. It was very very good. So I good i actually paid for the song with iTunes.

Note: Most of what I buy through iTunes is what I call Work Jazz, because it provides lively background music without words to sing along too, something I tend to do without even realizing it, so to trick my brain with sound its got to be all horns, strings and drums. Lively, but it allows me to concentrate.

In any case, I popped on YouTube to look up something else, probably game related I don't really remember, and in my suggestions were some reaction videos to that particular song's video. Now I've been very bored on occasion, and watched some reaction videos. There are couple of young fellas I watched a couple of times who announce that they like to get into that old stuff, then will play something I used to listen to when it first came out, for instance, House of Pain's Jump Around. Not to hate on them, but damnit, why you trying to make me feel old with that. I mean, it's not an old song. It came out when? ....Don't make me knock this whole thing over. 

In any case, I clicked on one because I was curious, and I wanted to see what other people thought. And down the rabbit hole I went. 

I have watched maybe twenty five or thirty since I started, and they follow a general pattern. The reviewer is hype, click subscribe, join the family, and now they've been sent a link or request to look at this, or they've heard it's hot and want to see for themselves. The beat comes up first while the screen is all black, and the person generally stops video to ask what the sample is. (It's the Fugees, which sampled it from Enya I think). The video starts with the producer looking smug and it cuts to the artists in studio and then it happens. Most of the time one of two things happen: The reviewer stops the video and asks the camera "is this a joke?" or they pause it and look at the screen for a few seconds puzzled.

Because the group is Pete & Bas. And Pete is wearing a pork-pie hat and Bas has a suit on. Oh, and they're both white. And Pete is 70. Bas is 74.

Probably should have mentioned that earlier.

Honestly, Pete looks like the guy who runs an independent garage, the kind that will put a new transmission in for $500 if you don't ask where the transmission came from. And Bas looks a no-nonsense version of Batman's butler Alfred. Basically couple of old villains from a Guy Ritchie gangster movie. Yes, Bas has on three Rolex watches and gold chains. Pete looks like he keeps a kneecapper under the bar. But if you've never seen them before,  there is a moment of pause. A lot of people thought this was a parody group and it was a comedy riff of some sort.

Then the reviewer starts the video again, going back a bit of course, and the song starts. The beat is infectious, and before you know you're bobbing your head. And Pete starts, his raspy voice fits his rapper's braggadocio perfectly, as this pensioner tries to pick up a girl at the bar. Reviewers suddenly shouting, "Wait, they got bars" is the a regular comment. Most people agree that Pete can go, as he bellies up the mike and lets loose. Every now and then a review will pause the video and immediately declare "He didn't write this," as though that's a disqualifying act. A number of rappers don't write their own stuff. Big names too. And I understand that these guys do write there own stuff, but that their grandchildren help them with the slang. I'm not getting into that.

Then Bas comes on and his voice is like butter. And he explains that a woman is after him, and tells her what time to come through. This usually raises some eyebrows and howls of appreciation. And because now that I've heard the song about 50 times, i know that they're not even getting started. Some reviewers try to translate the UK slang, other stop and go back multiple times perplexed at how well the lyrics and cadence go together. Quite a few bars cause people to pause and go back and appreciate the wordplay. One or two reviewers even got up and started dancing.

Then, when they switch off, Bas takes off his jacket. Some reviewers, already into it, start getting really excited.

Watching them is kinda funny. They don't bop around like regular rappers, they look stiff and a little bit off. But then, they are in their 70s and their bodies don't work quite the way a younger mans' would. And although from the ease in which they apper to do it, they haven't been rapping since the 80s. I understand that they only having picked it up in the last four years or so. According to Bas in an interview they shot after making this, if he wasn't doing this he figures he'd be sitting around waiting to die. So I applaud them for getting out of their comfort zone and having a little fun.

The duo apparently have albums. And a number of videos. One of the vids has Pete golfing with hand grenades and Bas in a gilly suit.  Another could have been a scene from a Guy Ritchie film. They have following. They're damned good rappers, better than a lot I've heard.

And by the way, when Bas takes the jacket off...he really does go in.

The hardest song of 2021 so far is by two grandfathers. Damn. 

Barkeep. Some of that good good from the back. Why does everyone note when Fumez the engineer spills his drink?

So, YOUR boy.... (as required by Internet Rule #478b)

Ramblings Post #391
My friend and I trade memes to pass this lockdown time. I mean, I haven't been vaccinated yet and there IS a 1 in 5 chance of having a serious medical aliment that follows you for the rest of your life if you get it, so I'm enjoying some me time. But anyway, we trade memes. Silly memes, sports memes (she hates the Cowboys) and political memes. But she's not as attuned to frivolities of the Internet like myself. But she does occasionally send the wicked curve-ball. I'm glad this isn't in her wind up.

I have absolutely no interest in viewing Lil Nas' new video for his new single MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name). Zero. Why don't you watch it before you judge you might retort? I would decline, for the preview images have already given rise to the idea that it is not for me. Note here, I didn't say bad, evil, demonic,  objectionable or not worthy of it's creation. I said that it is NOT FOR ME. There are a lot of things in this world that may be in essence good, or at least something we should reserve judgment for... like say, bananas or Adam Sandler films. But sometimes you just know something isn't for you, and subjecting yourself to it would problematic. So I'm going to say that this song, which I understand is along the lines of an open letter to himself about coming out as gay, is not for me.  

And no, I don't eat bananas because first there is just something wrong with the texture and second the taste of them is just weird (perhaps it's just me because I never really ate them because of the texture). And Adam Sandler is hit or miss, honestly.

Now I've watched and enjoyed other media focused on coming out stories, on gay men and women, on satanic worship, etc, so I don't think that this is bias thing. I thought South Park's gay couple of Satan and Saddam Hussien was funny, so the visuals for the video are not even a wholly new idea. And despite the 73,000 remixes of Old Town Road I was still in favor of  the young man getting his money. I mean Lil Nas X's rags to riches story of his come up is fantastic. The ASCAP money alone must have been staggering. And since then he's become a new millennia celeb, putting up top choice snark on Twitter and doing the rounds. 

This is his next project? This? 

I'm not sure what he's going for here. Is this a declaration of his identity? Because I'm fairly sure most of us already knew he was gay. An image change? I thought we already had enough "evil" rappers, but maybe he's got a spin on it we haven't seen. A record label indulgence for a successful artist? Wouldn't be the first or last time. But whatever this is he's definitely committed. Instead of just the video which could be waved away as a questionable artistic choice, as part of his promo he had commissioned 666 pairs of Nike Air Max 97 shoes in black and red, which feature a real drop of blood (hopefully his own, but I don't know), a pentagram attached, the number 666 emblazoned, and a bible verse about the devil, John 3:18. A collaboration with art collective MSCHF (which Nike has disavowed), the shoes were priced at $1,018 a pop and sold out in less than a minute. 

If you're gonna be a bear....

What I don't understand is that he is mildly upset, perhaps weary, of the outrage. He knew this was coming, after all he lives in a country that takes umbrage at people not saying bless you when someone sneezes. Lap dancing the devil in your music video is just a bit above that. Yes, we are an increasingly secular country, but when you push at the boundaries things don't always go as planned. I hope he calculated the duration properly - see Dixie Chicks. 

Like Issa Rae once said, I'm rooting for everybody black. This don't really have my blessings though, but then who am I to judge? I just hope he knows what he's doing, because while things have changed in the past few years, they ain't changed that much. 

Barkeep. Let me get a glass of that Cali Red from Snoop Dog. My people say that wine is the bomb.

The Blues Brothers? Sh*****it they still owe you money fool!

Aretha: We got two honkies out there dressed like Hasidic diamond merchants

Matt: What you mean?

Aretha: They look like they're from the CIA or something.

Matt: What they order?

Aretha: The tall one wants white toast, dry, with nothin' on it.

Matt: Elwood.

Aretha: And the other one wants four whole fried chickens and a Coke.

Matt: Jake. 

That scene from the Blues Brothers is quite honestly my favorite version of Aretha Franklin. She's a woman who built something that she's proud of, ain't about to take no shorts, and loves her man enough to sing to him to get his mind right. Matt 'Guitar' Murphy still rides off with the aforementioned Blues Brothers, but it was a very good showing for her in a small choice role.

But one of my most indelible memories of Aretha is her appearance on the initial episode of a show called VH1 Divas. I say initial episode like it I watched the series, but seriously I don't know if there was ever a second episode, because after the finale of the first one there was no point in doing it again. The show was supposed to be a showcase of the true divas of modern music brought together for one magical night. The network brought out talented heavyweights like Celine Dion and Mariah Carey along fabulous vocalists Shania Twain, Gloria Estafan and the legendary song writer Carole King. The icing on that musical master class however was the one and only Aretha.

The finale was supposed to feature all the singers sharing a single stage, singing a single song - (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, actually written by Carole King. It was supposed to be all harmony and solidarity. But that's not what happened. Once they all got out there, Aretha took over and turned some of the best pop and R&B singers in the world into her back-up group. To her credit, Shania Twain didn't even pretend she was the lead singer. I understand that if you watch the tape that you can see Gloria Estafan actually put her mic down. Celine actually had the audacity to step up like she was gonna do something. Riffing, scatting and putting her touch of soul on the song long associated with her, those women knew and instead of being insulted at the end even they applauded the Queen as the audience cheered.

Listening to Aretha gives chills at times. Her voice was electric, magical, and had an ability to touch a person's soul if she wanted it to. From singing ditties about love with the Blues Brothers to filling in for Pavarotti to singing at the inauguration of the first black president (like anyone else could do it), she was quite frankly the best. Period.

We will miss you Aretha Franklin. We all will.

The Queen of Soul.

Um, you sure This is America?

Ramblings post #347
One of the weird things about this critiquing the art of others is hard. When you see something that someone put their blood sweat and tears into come out looking as though there is a lot less to them than you thought, you have a tendency to hesitate. And then you look around and notice you're the only one not applauding? Makes me wonder what movie I'm in. 

"You see the part where he shot the choir, that was supposed to represent the shooting in Charleston, only he's saying that we as black people had a part in that, because he was the one...."

This is how I know I'm old. I just watched the new hot thing that my younger brothers and sisters are feeling, the video of Childish Gambino's "This is America." It moved them. They felt that. And as I watched him, um, creatively, dance shirtless with young black children in an extremely clean warehouse to a song with only semi-lyrics and a beat George Clinton would have left in the studio I was surprised, mystified, confused and in the end left wondering just what the hell did I just watch. But I'm in the minority.

Looking at my various social media I'd heard rave reviews. This was artistic, beautiful, deep and three other adjectives that meant pretty good. So when I got home from the ranch, I found it online and watched. And while it appears packaged as an artistic conceptualization of view of this country from the minority point view, I ain't so sure. It's like when someone explained to me the Future's song Mask off was about masks the slaves used to be forced to wear and us as a people taking them off so we could truly us. Um, yeah, sure, okay.

Okay, truth be told it's taken me a lot less time to grow tired of this iteration of the in-season negro. I enjoyed Glover on Community, he has a couple of songs I like and the first season of Atlanta was pretty good. But since then he's become an artist whose indulgences have...gone beyond my tastes, and my tastes are pretty damn broad. Basquiat he is not. I've grown to prefer his show Atlanta, when he's not in the episode. I'm honestly a little afraid of what he'll bring to Lando Calrissian in the upcoming Han Solo film. As Hollywood's in-season negro he's been granted license to explore his own psyche because after all... he's brilliant. Isn't he? 

I must be getting old.

Barkeep, I think that last part where he dances on the dusty car, means that joint he lit was real and we'll be reading "meaning" into this forever.

Prince. Damn, damn, damn.

I'm gonna need a minute. The world doesn't feel right.

We have gotten far too casual with the term iconic and legendary lately. We like someone this month or this year and we want to refer to them as though they've been a part of lives since we remember our lives being our lives. And it devalues those whose artistry helps us to meet ourselves and find the words we always meant to say but just couldn't find.

Prince Rogers Nelson really was an ICON. He really was LEGENDARY. In every sense of the words.

Even writing that in the past tense feels funny.

I never met the man, never got to see him in concert either, despite his last show being in Atlanta. Still he was and will be a part of the very fabric of my life. There are songs he wrote more than three decades ago I still know by heart, including the ad-libbed parts, and melodies that evoke memories and feelings that make me have to pause. True, there are parts of his incredibly deep catalog that were a little past where I wanted to go, but it just meant maybe I wasn't ready for it yet. Or maybe his talent was beyond my conception.

I don't remember the first time I heard Prince. I do remember having his very first album on cassette tape. The one where he played all the instruments on every song (or so legend has it). I liked Under the Cherry Moon as well as Purple Rain. I like way too many songs of his to have a favorite. So many of them spoke to me, sometimes when I wasn't even trying to listen.

Damn.   

The Train rolls into the station

There weren't a whole lot of channels when I was kid. Back before my parents got the magic white box with the slider (this before the wood paneled box with the switches and the dial) we had three stations, public television and the religious channel.

On Saturday mornings they played cartoons, only then, instead of all day on two or three cable channels. It was event television. So on Saturday mornings as a kid you camped out in front of the TV for three or four hours to catch the latest stuff. Then you could go out and play. But I watched for a little longer. Because right after the cartoons went off, I took the hippest trip in America.

When I was a kid there was no channel that showed who the musicians were, no videos of their ideas (or rather a director or producer) with them snake dancing to the sounds. We listened to the radio to hear the music, we bought the record to love music, we watched Soul Train to see...to live the music. It was for a long time the definition of cool. At least to me.

I was too young to go anywhere, to far in the country to see anything, so for me Soul Train was it - my ticket to the world outside of where I was. I recognized the dancers, I copied the moves, and I wasn't alone because I can't tell you how many parties I've been to since where people have started a "Soul Train Line" just to keep the party going.

Thank you Don Cornelius. Thank you very much.

My Playlist

Ramblings Post #123
I love music. There are songs that I haven't heard in 15 years that if the music started I could sing like I'd heard it yesterday. Every so often, at a personal crossroad, I would hear a song that perfectly captured the moment. Like God was sending me a message. Sporty once sent me a song that...well, set my dreams on fire. Music is a powerful thing.

My Playlist. While plucking chickens, I need music that soothes and keeps me from, well, things not suggested by the local constabulary. Plucking chickens is stressful.

As I've indicated before, I love music. Well, it's in here somewhere (oh, yeah, see the intro). At one point I even was deluded enough to believe I could sing, then I turned nine. My tastes are eclectic, from rap to soul, to country and electronic, jazz and classical. I'm flexible.

This playlist isn't new songs, I like familiar sounds, at least when I'm working. Let's me concentrate.

And it's got a theme, which is guess is um...appreciation. In some form.

Promise - Ciara
Ooh Ooh - Cheri Dennis
Brotha - Angie Stone
Stay for a While - Angie Stone
Baby - Ashanti
Slowly - Syleena Johnson
Always Will - Tweet
Cater to You - Destiny's Child
Truth Is - Fantasia
Opera - Floetry
Always be my baby - Mariah Carey
Wanna be with You - Mary J. Blige

Well, I am a romantic at heart. Think about it. A few songs bring certain people to mind, which is always soothing.


Barkeep, turn on some music I can drink too!

The Record Report

Ramblings Post #75
The year 2009 draws to a close, and I'm slowly coming to grips with not being a kid anymore. Don't get me wrong, even in my lumpy form in ill fitting clothes driving my Road Hazard Turbo 05' I still am the recipient of the occasional glance of the young chippie. That or they've mistaken me for their father. In either case, it means age is just a number. A big number, but just a number.

One of the many signs of old age is when you think the current music is horrible, and that they they don't like they used to "back when I was growing up" . And this may be the case for me, as lately music...well, the more popular rap music of today, seems to have taken the term "quality control" to new heights, or lows depending on your point of view. This little tirade was prompted when listening to the radio this morning on the way to work, Jay Z's new single, the one about New York, came on....so I changed the station...and then Jay Z's new single came on...so I changed the station, again....and then Jay Z's new single came on...so I changed the station, again again....and then Jay Z's new single came on...so I turned to the gospel station.

As you may or may not have guessed, I'm not a big Jay Z fan. I think the last song of his that I liked was "I Just Wanna Love Ya" in 2000.

Don't even get me started on the mess that is Lil Wayne.

And if I as a consumer have no interest in the two "hottest" rappers in the game, then maybe it's just that I'm getting old and this is just a sign of the times.

And you would be wrong.

I like a lot of "new" rap. Atlanta's own Gucci Mane's "Wasted" I found catchy before they played into oblivion. Kanye's "Big Ego" was quirky but likable, I just got turned on to Fred the Godson (though he is a little gangsta for my usual tastes) and Blitz the Ambassador , so I do like some of the new stuff. Even Officer Ricky (Rick Ross) is okay. But these guys? Well....

Jay Z lucked out, then I guess worked that good fortune to his benefit. That good fortune being that the rap game was bereft of any talent or heat in the late 90's. And Wayne gets by on image and inertia. He has the prototypical "rapper" look that makes us mad when suburban white kids emulate it, yet "we" celebrate it. The thing about these two "rappers" that bothers me the most is that according to them neither can be bothered to put pen to paper prior to walking into the studio. And their songs sound like it.

Jigga is at least practiced at freestyle to some degree, but his rhymes have a Flavor-aid feel to them, as opposed to authentic Kool-aid. Instead of the complex construction that is the NY norm, this Rockafella original comes across as light in the cookies, but with good production. In a subgenre that places heavy emphasis on wordplay, Jay to me appears to be a really popular middleweight, and not a heavyweight.

Wayne on the other hand, just needs to stop. That latest thing currently in heavy rotation for no reason in which he laughs between lines is so bad, it's gone on through back around to good and then back to bad again. At least that Jay Z song I don't like has a loose theme - very loose - but Wayne just appears to be in the studio messing around. The single is almost like one of those old time skits rappers used to put on the albums to deflect all the gunplay and being black angst they displayed. Not that I'm hating that you can just throw something together and get paid, but as the theoretical consumer, I don't appreciate being insulted either. And that's what that is...insulting.

For the record, the last Lil Wayne song I liked was "Stuntin' Like My Daddy", although his wordplay is horrible there as well, the beat is killer.

The occasional one off that is nonsensical or just pure braggadocio is okay, even expected in the rap game. A continuing series of them quickly becomes tiring. Over several years it becomes wearisome. In a four minute song we're talking about roughly two minutes of rap...or three scores of sixteen bars, not including chants and general screaming into the microphone... not a whole lot of writing. And it's not like either one of them are "battle rapping", so I don't really see the big thrill.

Maybe I'm just getting old. But more likely, I'm not.

Barkeep. For old times sake, a Schlitiz Malt Liquor Bull and bag of pork skins...

The Current State of Urban Flava

Ramblings Post #48
There are times when you discuss in a intelligent fashion, with voice modulated and facts clear as to your disagreement, and there are times when you just lean in close to your opponent and make your insults as personal as is humanly possible. I try to stay away from the second, but every now and then, you gotta go there. This is so I don't have to go there with somebody.

I used to listen to a lot of rap music. I mean a lot of rap music. I came up in the golden age of rap music of Sugar Hill Gang, RUN-DMC, Whodini and Public Enemy , when a rapper made his name with what he could do on the microphone. I found quality in the music from the West Coast, which in my opinion was basically the Dr. Dre sound and concentrated more on the weave of music and word than just the lyric base employed by East Coast rappers. And I went to school in the South and enjoyed many a musician who was "world famous" in Florida, and where if the beat was raw enough you could grunt and sell a million copies.

As you can see I've considered the variance in music tastes, can appreciate the difference between a party song and a message cut and I have actually argued the merits of proximity to the major media outlets in gauging group popularity vs. raw talent in minor market making a major splash.

Lately, though, I've had to stop listening to most new rap. Maybe it's age, maybe it's maturity, maybe it's that I've heard it all, but a lot of the new stuff is either a) repetitive, b) simplistic or just c) uninspired.

Rappers....en mass.

By repetitive I mean that how many times can you play the thug role? How many minor variations can we get of performers who tip a hat to the side, put on a white t-shirt, let their pants sag and claim a criminal past? Do we really need another? And since we've been in "thug mode" since NWA in the late 80's, we have to had every iteration. What happened to the likes of another Kwame? Or another Digable Planets? What happened to creativity or style or really anything other than the latest gangster stereotype paraded out with a new coat of paint?

It's way too simplistic for the most part. If you've listened to rap music for a while, you can hear the difference between the new music for the most part and the old classics, in that there seemed to have been more care put into crafting the actual words than today. The current form embraced by a lot of artists today is something espoused by Biggie, in that he didn't write any rhymes he just spoke them. Which is cool if you can do that, but I think if listen to Biggie, the complexity indicates that whereas he didn't write, he did take the time to craft his rhyme. A lot of young rappers seem to believe they can just create on the spot. There is a song the one southern rap artist admitted it took only 30 minutes from the time they decided to CREATE it to get it in the can, I wish I could remember what it was.

The great lyricists of the earlier age - guys like Ice Cube, Dana Dane, LL Cool J and other guys who in course of song could tell a whole story or talk on a whole concept, would actually *cough* wrote stuff down. You still can listen to the songs 10 or 15 years later. When you don't write you get a jumble of musical images tossed together or worse, repetitive lyrics indicating a lack of forethought. Rappers used to refer to their rhyme book in a very real sense.

And how more uninspired can rap be right now? I appreciated Nas with "If I ruled the World" which gave a diatribe about how he would change the world given the chance as opposed to ....well, pick a rapper. You can almost see the game plan in the studio:

>Producer: So, DJ Suka Punc, you ready?
>Rapper: Aight, son.
>Producer: Okay, remember to say something about selling drugs, big rims, reference a Bentley and motorcycle riding, use the term ballin, toss in some unrecognizable street slang and this time go easy on the strip clubs and derogatory references to women, this is supposed to be a love song.
>Rapper: I'm holla 'bout money and my tatts too.
>Producer: Cool. Here we go.

Where are the modern day concepts like "My Adidas" and "My Rhyme ain't done"? Or a something like a Ice Cube's "My Summer Vacation", "It Was Good Day" or Slick Rick's "Children's Story"? Does anyone really think they made up these songs as they went? There a few talents out there, T.I. is one as well as Eminem or Mos Def, but for every guy who obviously sat down and thought about it, there are twenty guys who approach the studio as if they were Parliament Funkadelic on the three day bender, forgetting those guys were trained musicians and most of today's artists are just, well...friends of somebody with talent, family of somebody with talent, or lucked out.

It's a shame but now I listen to most songs for the music more than the words, to get the groove. Every now and then I'll hear a groove with a good hook and a couple of lines that I like and kick it to that for while. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good party song just as much if not more so than the next guy, but the vast majority of rappers today are pure image, a "thugged" out appearance and a cadre of great producers.

I miss rap. I wish it would come back.

Barkeep...Koolaid. Red Koolaid.

Alright, Enough Already...can we let this go?

Internet Fodder Post #4
This will actually cover more than just the internet, because this time more than just the internet is responsible for this lunacy. I wish we were better than this, that in some way we as the citizens of the world could recognize when things get out of hand, when things go too far. And at that moment, we stop, take a deep collective cleansing breath, and back away from the lunacy. We haven't reached that point yet.

Okay, I realize that Micheal Jackson was an Icon, beloved by millions around the world, musical genius and all that, but this is getting silly. Why is it still in around the clock coverage on a major news networks, no, let me strike that because I have no idea what's on Fox News, but why is CNN covering it like lives hang in the balance?

Mike's kids will not starve. This I promise you.
Mike's money is gone. And it ain't coming back.
Mike's family had some secrets. But then, we all knew that...so big whup.

The new major offensive in Afghanistan? Relegated to the crawl along the bottom of the screen. Larry King will be live from the Neverland Ranch at some point! Maybe I miss heard them, but I swear it was breaking news that they...were moving his body? Um...other than the family, do the rest of us really need to know that, and why is it news?

CNN needs to do better. I live maybe fifteen minutes from CNN center, and I'm tempted to go down there and throw a brick at a programmer. There was a coup in Honduras! Amjabaa-bitty-boop boop or whatever threatened us again. They're still killing folks in Iran for talking back. Our own government passed climate legislation and CNN has a nurse who says Mike couldn't sleep. They will hiring at CNN soon, because there will be some firings shortly. Or at least there needs to be.

And lo, I wish it was just CNN. The number of Micheal Jackson stories I have read this week:Mike was fine, Mike loved his kids, Mike was broke, Mike was sick, Mike couldn't speak, Mike got duped into the comeback concerts, Mike knew what he was doing, Mike was a pawn, Mike had a gay lover whose got pictures to prove it, Mike's accuser lied, Mike was frail, Mike was practicing for this show, Mike has a million songs stashed away, Mike was on meds, Mike thought he was going to die, etc and so on from Newsweek, The Huffington Post, the Daily Mail, and every other junior bootleg site is ....well, seriously..has anything else happened?

For the sake of the family, who actually lost a brother/son/father...can we all just let this go? Please?

Let the Jackson's mourn in peace.

The obligatory Micheal Jackson Post.

Ramblings Post #40
> in this episode, we find out that everything isn't always as beautiful as it seems. And things happen, just happen, even if we least expect it. And all you can do is roll with it, or get rolled over by it. Either way, you wake up tomorrow and the world goes on. It's easy as A-B-C, it's easy as 1-2-3...

Sporty texted me in class that Micheal Jackson had died the other night.

My first reaction: "Well, Farrah just died. Maybe they've got their white women mixed up."

Sporty still hits me up for important things and this in terms of items of cultural significance certainly qualified. Then somebody else said their husband had sent them the same message. This was just seconds into the dinner break, so I hopped online with the trusty laptop and went to somebody who could get sued for bad info - Yahoo - for confirmation. And bang there it was.

Micheal Jackson, King of Pop, dead at 50.


Talk about out of left field. I was a little sad that it came to this. I was stunned really at the suddeness of it all.

But this leads me back to my MJ theory I've been professing for years.

Whatever do I mean? Well, my theory, I think Micheal Jackson died right around the end of recording Thriller, or somewhere thereabouts. And that in a desperate effort not to let what some saw as masterpiece be sadly handled, some people hired this guy who kinda looked like Mike to pretend to be Mike for a little while...and things got out of hand. Way out of hand.

Why would I expouse this crackpot theory, this obvious bit of horsepucky as credible? Well, people forget that in the early 80's Micheal Jackson was photographed drinking alcohol, regularly seen going to clubs, accused of fathering children out wedlock and generally viewed as acting like a young guy with fame and pocketful of money should act. Then something happened. And suddenly he was hanging out with kids and getting his face redone with the frequency of tire changes. Where did he snap is what most folks want to ask. I say, when did he keel over. I mean thinking in early 1980 terms - before cell phones, 24 hour entertainment news, internet, and lately twitter - how hard would it have been for someone to disappear for a few weeks? And with the plastic surgery story the impostor only had to look close, not exactly.

I'm just saying.

Back to the actual situation though, as sad and hard as it is for his family and his kids, if you are fan you almost feel a odd sense of relief that the weirdness is over, that it will finally go back to being about Micheal's music. Well, once the autopsy finishes and as Liza Minnelli put it "all hell breaks loose", then it can go back to being about the music.

And if you think Tupac put out posthumous albums, I understand Mike must have 100+ recorded songs that never made it onto an album from way back, and if you think those aren't about to get released...you must be from Alabama. But then, it will be about the music again. There will be no distraction of the MJ circus to make you think of anything else but the songs. So in that way, the man who helped define MTV and drive music towards being about the spectacle, might be the same person who inadvertently drives it back to being just about the music.

In the interest of full disclosure, I never really was much of Micheal Jackson fan. I liked "Dirty Diana" and a few of his songs from Off The Wall, but to me it wasn't soul moving. It was okay, and better than a lot of the music of today, but it just never really grabbed me. He was always more of a Jackson, than just Micheal to me.

And if you grew up when I grew up, that was more than enough.