With Much Deliberation

I thought long and hard about this... Michael Jackson. His death is everywhere and I, at first, refused to include that in here. But just let me say this:

How can a man who paid $20 million to the family of a victim (and presumably the victim himself) to get out of a child molestation civil suit, have a history of said activity be considered some great thing? His fans baffle me.

The Catholic church has endured the same vilification over the centuries without one redeeming quality... at least none I think of. Yet, as Big Rick told me yesterday, if one can sing and dance and sell an ass load of records, that makes him immune to the accusations and his own actions.

I'm not saying MJ should rot in hell, that is for the Almighty to decide, what I am saying is even when your heroes stumble, you need to evaluate why they are your hero and just how far are going to look beyond their faults to continue that hero relationship.

When it was determined Roger Clemens may have been doping in baseball, my heart was broken. I loved watching that guy play ball. But if he truly did dope up and cheat at baseball, I hope they send him out. As for Barry Bonds, we'll get into that when the time is right.

But, back to MJ. the circus has rolled into town and the animals have been turned loose. This thing is going to be a sick moment in Americana and I, for one, am already sick of it... nevertheless, I'll be right in the thick of it as we watch the real weirdness unfold.

Stay tuned...

Yeah, It's Hot

This picture was taken last February. This is my wife Josephine and our two greyhounds Jack and Zoe (from left). Yes, the dogs are wearing coats, long story. Anyway, I thought I would share this little picture while the current temperatures are cresting the triple digit mark in heat index.

If you are getting a little hot outside, think of this simple little serene moment captured earlier this year.

For the record, I was as miserable then as I kinda am right now. I used to love the heat, I grew up in south Texas where winter is February 12th, for about an hour and a half. Unlike here where there are four distinctish seasons. But I have to remember that it "ain't the heat, it's the humidity." How true.

So, for all this talk of global warming or climate change or whatever you want to call it, around here there is at least some change in the weather once we get around the other side of the sun. For the record, the Farmer's Almanac kind of predicted this heat, as you can see here. Most notably, June being 4 degrees above average. If you put your faith into this sort of thing, keep in mind, as of the posting of this, we're supposed to be seeing some scattered storms and what they call "seasonal" weather... whatever that means.

This goes on to say we should expect a normal July and August with June being the only month with a substantial increase in temperature. What does all this really mean?

It's hot as hell outside. Stay in the air conditioning.

Going Ape over Mr. Rogers

When I was a youngster, like most kids my age, I spent some afternoon TV time with Mr. Rogers. He was one of the few bits of wholesome television I could tolerate. That was until Monty Python came on and my little world changed.

But back to the good Fred Rogers. Mr. Rogers calm way he carried on to the show everyday always brought some sense of relief, no matter how awkward he was. take this video, for example. Here's Mr. Rogers with Koko the signing gorilla. At one point during this video, it appears Koko will not let him go. She apparently liked Mr. Rogers. Maybe the way King Kong liked Ann Darrow. There is a sense of uneasiness while watching this, and to me at least, a certain bit of strange comfort. You know, the comfort you get while watching Fred Rogers in the clutches of a 400 pound gorilla.



I don't know about you, but when Koko grunts, I would have needed a change of pants.

A Dilemma

We live on a quiet street in midtown not terribly far from Cooper and Young. It's a nice street with nice people living in the area. We have nice neighbors. Very nice neighbors. The neighbors, over the weekend decided to have a little block party so we would all get to know each other and start a little phone list which I thought was a great idea. Most everyone on the block stopped by at the very least to say "hello".

Eventually, the conversation turned to a resident on the street whose son was recently released out of prison for what we think is a drug charge. He's living with his mom there on the street and there are some nervous feelings about this.

This guy will have his buddies drop by to hang on the front porch doing God knows what.

Well, that was precisely what was going on when another neighbor, who has a police officer for a son, got nervy. She called her son, who was on duty, to stop buy with his partners to hang for a bit on her porch. As you can imagine, the miscreants got worked up over this and eventually left. This prompted the kids' mother to have a chat with the other lady about the cops.

She chewed her out. Something to the effect of how dare you threaten these boys, etc., etc.

As it turns out, the boy has some sort of brain damage. Probably from the massive amount of crack he's been smoking and made a comment to the effect of, "I may have to get my gun." Of course, he never did and no one knows for sure whether or not he actually has one. And frankly, no one around here wants to find out for sure. Hence the dilemma.

Dude and his mom rent this duplex they live in and conversations have taken place with their landlord allowing us to know that they don't really pay any rent and the old landlord hasn't kicked them out yet. Something along the lines of, "We haven't found a place to move to yet." Although the old guy who rents this place to them told me they were leaving.

Something is going to happen around here if they don't go. I can see my neighbors now, like the scene in Frankenstein when the villagers come out with pitchforks and torches and run this family out. Probably way better than the scene in High Noon when there's a shootout in the street. Either way, the landlord is the real douchebag for not doing anything about this idiot.

Maybe we'll win the lottery so I can buy this property out from under the old man and bulldoze the thing. Oh well, at least I can dream about a time when there are no brain damaged, gun wielding maniacs living in the neighborhood, can't I?

Se la vie...

TV News

Those who know me, know of my past in the television news industry. Those same people will tell what I think about the television news industry. For those of you who don't know, and not to put too fine a point on it, it sucks. As it is said, "It ain't what it used to be."

Self-centered reporters giving about one third of the truth on something that has NO relevance to you at the time. Making the story about themselves. Exaggeration. Indictments. It's all there and those are just some of the reasons why I don't watch it. TV news has a tendency to piss me off. Ed Murrow once said of television, "... this instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely lights and wires in a box."

When I was cutting my TV teeth at WTVA in Tupelo, Mississippi, I struck up a life long friendship with a man named Tom Dees. He was a photographer there and a damn good one at that. We spent a few years working together there uncovering all sorts of ugliness and "news worthy" things. To make a long story short, the day came when I left for greener pastures and Tom moved to the other side of the camera and became a great reporter.

Dees has since moved to Memphis and can be seen on Fox 13. He's been here for many years and he's easily the best interviewer in the business and has a certain knack for getting the best out of his subjects as the following video shows. He blames me for that. On a side note here: It's his fault I'm in Memphis, so there. We're even. Yet another long yarn for later.

Anyway, he has been able to do something I could never do in my brief TV career. He's an award winning TV guy and after some two Emmy awards later, Tom is putting together a great career in an otherwise slimy business. I give you the following example of one of his latest stories:



This, in my opinion is how TV news should be done. I think I smell another Emmy for Tom Dees... the bastard.

Nice job, Tom... "Good night and good luck."