reflecting on the media spectacle that is the coverage of the death of Michael Jackson.

Media is too driven by the input of the public. This has increased by networks streaming people's twits and instant comments. They have given coverage of some stories over to twitter completely. They have (seemingly with great relief) abdicated their responsibility to report the news. All they do now is (much like right wing talk radio) tell us what we tell them we want to hear. And like baby birds we gratefully allow them to regurgitate the news into our wide open mouths.

If the media followed the old model we would have had the story in three parts. First, Jackson dies. The story would have persisted for a few days due to his age and fame. Next, we would have had stories about the cause of death. These would have consisted of stories that essentially said "we don't know what caused his death yet". And third, the funeral. Susequent days would have smaller stories about the will, the family and other "pop-up" stories like his ex-wife screaming at paparazzi.

Essentially, what we have had is two weeks of continuous coverage of the death of "the King of Pop"

I am not blaming the media. I am blaming their use of what is essentially a way for friends to keep in touch as a SOURCE OF MAJOR NEWS. Now I DO realize that a lot of news came out of Iran via twitter, but a LOT of that news was not verifiable and in the past would have been listed as "unsubstantiated" not "BREAKING NEWS".

So when you reach saturation point on the Jackson funeral and find yourself curious about riots in China or Nuclear wheapons coming out of North Korea on rusty freighters remember, we did it to ourselves. Twit to CNN you want some REAL news not predigested PAP.

I'd do it myself, but my phone doesn't DO twitter. It's just a phone.

PALIN RESIGNS AS ALASKA GOVERNOR. WILL NOT SEEK SECOND TERM.

WTF?

There HAS to be a reason?!

Maybe she killed Michael Jackson?

Was she having an affair with Mark Sanford?

Are there coaching jobs available in the NHL?

A pit bull lipstick endorsement?

What do YOU think?

Well, the messiest home in the country is right here in Cincinnati.

That's not what I am ashamed of the messy house. I am ashamed at the assholes who live there.

They made Miz Neicy cry.

And they were assholes.

Billy MAYS??


now I am devastated. I wonder if he was killed by OxyClean fumes...

in an odd twist of fate, the Chineese Elephant Man has expressed interest in purchasing Michael Jackson's bones.


too soon?

No ice cream. We went to the Golden Corral and stuffed our faces.

good times.

Hello gang!

The GF gets sprung at 3 PM this afternoon.

Thanks for all your support.

I am getting her ice cream and mucho soda (UDF has a 52 oz. size).

My GF has some mental health issues and today she had a major break.

She had the mother of all anxiety attacks. Her job has been kicking her pretty ass, and it came to a head today.

I was taking her to work, she was crying, freaking out so she called her psychiatrist.

The office person advised her to go to the emergency room, so we headed that way.

She went through triage and the damn social worker decided the GF was a danger to herself because she had taken a couple extra xanax. My GF is my age and has been on anxiety medication for about twenty-five years.

So they admitted her as an INVOLUNTARY admission.

Let me vent for a moment about social workers. God knows they mean well, but the ones I have met are unimaginative idiots. Have you had a drink in the past six months? YEH? Well, you are an alcoholic! Have anger management problems? Damn! It must be that six pack you bought last year! Take an extra Xanax? Junkie SUICIDE! I have never met a social worker that knew their ass from Ninth Street.

Back to the GF.

I was thinking, "how bad can this be? It's a hospital." First of all, They take her up to a locked area. She was told she wouldn't be locked in. Then, after they signed her in they let me in. They took me to her room and I was shocked. It was a bare, ugly semi-private room. No TV, no phone, no pictures on the wall, no clock, no nothing. It was the cooler from "The Great Escape". All that was missing was Steve McQueen.

She was standing there crying. All she wanted to do was go home. She hates strange situations, strange people scare her, and she can't sleep without the TV on.

My poor love.

So what I am asking for my babies, are prayers, well wishes, and good karma for my GF that when the Doctor talks to her tomorrow she gets turned loose.

On top of this I feel guilty. I drove her to the damn place...

well, things have been rather -um- crappy around the Casa Dweezil for the past couple of weeks. I have been avoiding reality as much as I can, but I can only stretch the old bi-weekly checks to cover an occasional six pack. So if anyone wants to drop off some "special" brownies or something, well, let me know, OK?

I have noticed a strange trend in cable programming. It is THE RISE OF THE SKANK. In the early days the skank used to have to depend on appearances in Rap or Hair Metal videos. Then they made rare appearances on "The Real World" or some strange VH1 shows. As a matter of fact, VH1 has flirted with going "all skank, all the time".

But now, the skank appears on lots of different cable outlets.

Bravo has rich "housewife" skanks and fashion skanks. SoapNet has southern Belle Skanks. Oxygen has Tori Spelling and Fox News has Laura Ingram. The fucking Kardassians are everywhere.

It's worse than the damn swine flu.

I don't watch these shows, but the damn promos are EVERYWHERE. No matter what you watch you are going to see these damn skanks. And They Are NOT Attractive. I do NOT like fake breasts. I do not like big hair. I do not enjoy watching drama queens.

But what REALLY pisses me off is TV Land. With hundreds of TV shows laying around, TV Land comes up with crap like "the Cougar" and that damn show about "older" women breaking into modeling. Come ON! Show me some OLD TV SHOWS!

OK. I have too much time on my hands.

Time to look for some more places to send my resume, kids.

I remember it well. I was a young kid, twelve or thirteen years old and I saw an ad on TV for the fall premier of a new NBC show called STAR TREK. It was back in the day when they ran promos all summer for the new shows. All I remember was that they showed one of those cuts from the bridge where everybody was staggering all over the place, just like they did on VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA.

I couldnt wait.

I was a loyal viewer. I bought the model kits, the blueprints, the books. I was in agony when the show was cancelled. I was overjoyed when they started making movies and even happier when the NEXT GENERATION started. I liked it even more that the original.

Over the years TREK began taking itself too seriously.

It was all made for the nit pickers and worried about "cannon". I became like Shatner in that old SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE skit. It was too much trouble. I barely watched VOYAGER and ENTERPRISE was just sad.

The TNG movies were OK, but something was missing; something like a script maybe...

So, when I heard that there was to be a new movie, a reboot, a prequel I was excited.

and I waited.

Today was the day. I and my grocery store raisinettes took a seat in the third row and was prepared to pick nits. After all, I have been watching TREK for like forty years.

HOLY CRAP WHAT A COOL ASS MOVIE, KIDS!

Mr. & Mrs. Roddenberry are very happy today.

This old Trekker is very happy today.

The new TREK remembered all the stuff that was cool about the old TREK and made a damn good movie besides. The re-imagined crew was everything it should have been (and more!). I know there are folks out there that HATE spoilers so I will just say there was everything there should have been. There was a "I'm a doctor, not a" from Bones and a "I'm giving her all I can" from Scotty (plus another great line, too). Spock raises his eybrow, and Kirk lowers his pants.

It was hella fun.

Fucking go see it!

here is the only good thing I have found about being unemployed; you can catch up on TV shows you never saw before (The West Wing is hella good) and you get to see movies opening day. Join me friday at the first showing of Star Trek at the Milford Mega Plex.

Popcorn optional.

got my hairs cut today which means I was subjected to 45 minutes of conservative talk radio in the barbershop.

my gosh, these fools are helpless. if I didn't hate talk radio so much I'd feel sorry for them.

they have no ammo against the administration, no way to blame them for anything and no ideas, new OR old to attack.

It was WONDERFUL!

Oh, and my hair looks good, too

I am sad to say that I had never watched "The West Wing" before I caught it in repeats on Bravo.

Damn. What a fine show. Never a dull moment, never a weak actor. It's kind of fun to watch 'em three at a time, though...

And I am also mad that I didn't watch "The Big Bang Theory" until about a month ago. I saw the Christmas episode the other day and it made me laugh more than a TV show has made me laugh in 4 ever.

Anyway, along with NCIS, these are my current favorite shows. HEROES can suck it, I never liked the Terminator movies, I am not going to break my heart on another Joss Whedon show...

So, anybody got any other ideas?

Oh, and by the way, I saw "Hancock" the other day and actually liked it. Yeah. I guess I have a man crush on Will Smith or something...

One other thing; I am still unemployed.

as you may or may not know, tomorrow is my birthday.

in these difficult times, I am not asking for material goods.

I am asking for cheesecake, ladies.

You know what I mean.

T & A, sexy looks, body parts, stories, songs, etc.

I am an old man, ladies. I am asking for charity here. No, I am BEGGING for charity.


This is not a competition.

Void where prohibited or taxed.

Thank you for your consideration.

got my license sticker for the ride (expires on my birthday) and my present to myself; a bottle of rum.


yo ho.

Oh my fucking Lord.

They did NOT fuck it up. As a matter of fact, it was an amazing translation of the book. I did NOT miss the stuff they took out and I loved the stuff they added, especially the music. I am seriously considering buying the soundtrack.

See it.

If you read the book, see it.

If you didn't, see it.

If you like comics, SEE IT TODAY!

Movie makers have to be encouraged to do good work, so see the damn movie!

lack of structure is bumming me out. I try to get up and shower every day, but that only uses up 20 minutes if I'm lucky.

mehn.

Looking online for a job takes another ten or fifteen minutes, and reading my friends list takes another five or ten (post more!).

so, I should be completely depressed any day now...

Happy Valentine's Day to all my ladies.

I think it is important to remember that the house passed the middle class stimulus bill without a SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTE.

They don't care about us, folks. Remember that the next time you vote.

Cleaned off the couch today. The couch is a catch-all in my apartment because it is uncomfortable and a convenient place to toss stuff. Now, all that is on it is pillows and cat fur. I may be throwing the slipcover in the washer this weekend.

Trying to keep busy, but depression is just this side of too much thinking.

Remember, even if you hate your job it IS a job.

Oh! I remember what else I wanted to rant about. I happened upon an episode of "CRIBS" the other day. It is simply OBSCENE the way rich people live. These clowns have no conception of reality as they wander their "homes" that cost more than some towns spend on a school building. I could live for the rest of my life on the money they spend on their home theater system.

OK, I'm done now.

Have a nice day!

I had a bad morning today. Got kind of down about the whole not having a job thing. See, besides providing cash, jobs are great users of time. And this morning I was overwhelmed by the fact that I had done everything that needed to be done today before nine o'clock.

This sucks.

But at least I got the unemployment, my old job paid me my unused vacation and I bought a cheese pocket at Servatti's.

And I feel better.