Mommy, who is Michael Jackson?

One afternoon last week, judging by the special coverage on every local Los Angeles television station, you'd have thought someone had flown an airliner into a skyscraper. The actual news, of course, was that Michael Jackson had died suddenly, mysteriously, before the world could even learn if his comeback would be a success.

The concerts next month could never have generated as much money as the act of dying will. The extra positive media exposure and public forgiveness are incalculably large. What a great, if unintentional, career move.

However high his psychic apogees as the "King of Pop" his low points must have been frightening. His parents rode him hard and put him away emotionally wet. He spent his adult life searching for lost youth, questioning his fading talent, explaining his bizarre behavior and hiding his face from cameras - a living hell like that could be no worse than the imaginary fiery afterlife everyone seems to believe in..


But everything is different now. (I heard someone say exactly that on a TV news program.) Amidst the OJ-like media excitement over the as-yet unannounced upcoming Jackson funeral plus expectations of lawsuits, box sets, tribute productions, interviews of his children (once they turn 21), documentaries, made for TV biopics and, eventually, enough tell-all books to fill an elementary school library, America wants to know right this minute how the future will remember Michael Jackson.

Many people think Mike will end up at the top of the dead media legend tree next to Elvis. Hardly likely. My guess is that he'll end up several branches lower as the biggest name from the second-most relentlessly conformist and trivial era of popular culture ever. But the post-baby boom generation finally has its own John Lennon. Or is he their Tupac Shakur.

The important issue is whether Michael's fan base will replicate itself over time. When the current five-year olds who are listening to their parent's Michael Jackson albums grow up, they'll reproduce. Here's an imaginary conversation around the year 2040 between one of those kids and her tweener daughter.

Daughter "Mommy, who is Michael Jackson?"

Mom "He was a singer your Grandmother used to like when she was your age."

Daughter "Why does he look so funny."

Mom "Because he had plastic surgery to make him look younger."

Daughter "His eyes are sad. Why was he sad?"


Mom "Because he was so talented and so rich and so famous that he became unhappy."

Daughter "I thought famous people were always happy. Where is he now?"

Mom "He died a long time ago when he was fifty."

Daughter "No wonder he was sad. Fifty is REALLY OLD."

Mom "Don't tell your Grandmother. Now finish your bowl of Mr. Fizzy Mango Flavored Enviro-flax Sugar Treats and then you can watch that new show that you like on the 3-D Disney channel. Won't that be fun?"

Daughter "Oh boy!" Long pause. "Mommy, who is Miley Cyrus?"



The Michael Jackson Through The Year 2022 graphic came from here. Gessner Allee is, apparently, a theater in Zurich. The graphic is at least 3 years old.

Big Eye Tags: Michael Jackson. . . King of Pop. . . Death of Michael Jackson

Stop Needless Noise - Help America Keep Calm

I found these pictures reblogged on This Isn't Happiness. See if you can identify their common theme.



These pictures can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here or there. These links might help you find the original source blogs. Some of the pictures will enlarge if you click them. Ah ha.



Vinyl Tags: vinyl. . . records. . . photographs

Renewing My Blogging License

Ask any blogger. They'll tell you that keeping a valid blogging license means periodically posting pictures of your pets. Cute pictures are best. This humanizes us a little bit. We don't want you to think we're all cranky loners with strange ideas and unsupportable opinions who constantly misspell words while stealing copyrighted material from other websites.

This years parade begins with our dog Chowderhead. Not his best angle.


Here is Crackle. He's shy.


This is Spackle, twin sister to Crackle.


Finally, a serious portrait of Miss Ivy Turnstiles Smith-Perkette. She can be really annoying.


You'll have to ask for an explanation of Ivy's full name. Click any picture for enlargement.

Here's the previous Blog License preserving post (Jan. 08).

Here's another one - which includes a piece of my music entitled In A Pissy Mood - dedicated to our cats. (April 07)

Here are pictures of The Ackles (that's Crackle & Spackle) as kittens. They were cute kittens. They're now 3 years old.

Dog Tags: cat pictures. . . dog pictures. . . Chowderhead

Rain Random

Rain Random is a two-minute music composition with video images. The images are of rain. The piece is very cold and wet. Very empty. Like waiting for a bus on a street corner where there is no bus shelter without a raincoat during a huge rainstorm and everything around you just gets more blurred and dismal. More wet. More soaked. Please enjoy Rain Random.



Rain Random copyright (c) 2009 by David Ocker - 122 seconds.

If you have trouble with the embedded player, try here.

My other pieces of music with video:
Flag Day
The Chowder Jump - Fur or Red or Ball
Birds Who Don't Know the Words

Rain Tags: Rain. . . Random. . . David Ocker

John Roasts Roger

My buddy Roger Lebow has a strange malady - every ten years, when the second digit of his age number turns to zero, he throws himself a big birthday party. Like yesterday afternoon.

My buddy John Steinmetz roasted Roger. I made a video with the point'n'shoot in my pocket. In an era of instant picture posting this is available the morning after - just like those old-fashioned newspaper things.

As always, my apologies for the sound (I was far away in a boomy room) and for the occasional camera jerk (I laughed sometimes too). If you go to the YouTube page you can annotate the video with your own comments.



Other Mixed Meters videos in a similar vein which you may enjoy: Vinny Introduces Anne and Vinny Introduces Me.

Click here to see John Steinmetz's many Mixed Meters appearances, most recently about the Push Poke Prod Press. This is Roger's first feature appearance but he has been thanked previously.

And before I forget: Happy Birthday, Roger. I was gonna get you a card - but this will have to do.

Roast Tags: Roger Lebow. . . John Steinmetz. . . comedy roast