Armchair News

Thriller

I had Thriller. Somewhere out there, 36 million (or thereabouts) did, or still do. I remember how it folded out in gatefold style (albums, folks, albums) to reveal Michael Jackson lounging in a white suit, black shirt (unbuttoned just slightly) and a tiger cub crawling on him. I can't say it was sexy, I don't think I ever thought of MJ as sexy, but he was cute at times, and this was a pretty cute setup.

It was 1984, and I was 14. My tastes were more Duran Duran and Howard Jones and Steve Winwood, but you'd have to be some kind of alien not to have liked at least one song on Thriller. And I do remember at some point hearing every single song on that album on the radio -- even if "The Lady in My Life" was never released as a single, it did get radio airtime. I can't think of any other album -- though Jagged Little Pill comes close -- in which you can make that statement. It was, quite simply, a phenomenon.

But I was never manic about MJ. I left that to others. And when I began hanging out with the cantor's daughter, a lovely redhead named Rebecca -- hi there, you! 'Cos we're still friends -- I discovered at least one person who was mad for Michael. Through her I got reverberated fervor, saved pages out of my teen magazines so she'd have them, and probably got more into the MJ spirit than I would have had we not met.

Then we went to our Jewish youth group's convention in Ocean City in the dead of winter, and while there were plenty of bouts of madness, the thing I remember best is our little music bubble. We just blathered on and on about the genius of Peter Schilling's "Major Tom," for one thing ... and then we learned that mid-convention, the NBC series Friday Night Videos was going to world-premiere the Jon Landis' directed, long-form video "Thriller." The whole thing. Top to bottom. Maybe MTV had it already; VH1 I don't think even existed. But neither of us had cable. So we made sure to leave whatever dance or event or what have you was going on and race like someone was after us up to the hotel room in time to see the premiere.

Puts a lot of change in perspective: We didn't have TiVo, we didn't have Hulu, we didn't have YouTube. Miss it right then, and miss the moment. Miss the zeitgeist as it whistled down the hallway.

So despite what Michael Jackson ended up becoming, both physically and in peoples' minds, I still have that enduring memory of sitting on the edge of a double bed in a hotel in Ocean City, Maryland with a person who would become one of my oldest, dearest friends, watching one of the most talented pop musicians of our time do the zombie dance.

Musicians create the music, but it's the fans who give it meaning.

And just at this exact moment, someone has driven by my window blasting "Billie Jean."

We were all in on it, and we still are.

Keep moonwalking, MJ, wherever you are now.

(Crossposted on Facebook)

mmmmm .... bacon....

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Randee

Can't say I'm keen on the tags (go to the page if you wanna see for yourself), or the spelling of the person who wrote it up, but you know, I won't fight the "definition."

To everyone who posted here, on LJ or elsewhere, thank you so much for your posts!

I've determined to donate a fair bit to my local library more than what actually got posted here, but that was kind of the plan all along. ($50 was my thought.)

Let's do it again soon, and thank you for checking in to support libraries. Important stuff!

Home for books!

So, I'm carrying this over from LiveJournal, though I'm sure it's spreading all over the universe.

Consider this a kind of sponsorship, the way people sponsor walkers when they hoof it for a good cause. Only neither one of us actually has to do anything -- you just have to comment, I just have to write a check.

For every unique commenter on this post between now and noon on Saturday, March 28th, I will donate 50 cents to my local library: The Jackson Heights Library in Jackson Heights, Queens, up to an amount of $200 (I'm cross-posting this on my blog, too).

Totally easy: You comment here, I cough up dough, and the library gets more books. You don't have to be brilliant in your comment, just say "I love libraries" and that'll be good enough.

You could also cross-post this yourself and just post the link to your own library pledge.

Note: The pledge is per commenter -- so you can leave 50 comments, but it'll still only be 50 cents. But by spreading the word -- and maybe linking to this post -- you can send your friends here to comment and also raise more money.

Inspiration: The WriterJenn blog, which was linked to by my friend Rose on LJ.

As someone who doesn't actually have a printer right now, the library has been a godsend: It's kind of a PITA to hike over there and sign up, but when I need something printed, they're there for me, 7 days a week. It's clean and mostly quiet and I get what I need pretty speedily. Anyone who knows me at all knows I've been a library fiend for years, once cutting class in elementary school to just go read. Geek! Geek! And yet, who doesn't love a library?

So thanks for making this possible!

(Cross-posted from Facebook)

Dear American Idol Producers,

We're not idiots.

Well, some of us actually are. And some of us do revel in it a bit, particularly when we're watching your show.

But I spent 10 minutes of my evening tonight watching the DVR version of your results show this week. And I felt a compulsion to write.

Here are the rules as you've set them up this year: Each results show sifts through the 12 performers from the night before. One girl, one boy will pass through. Then a third -- whoever is the next highest vote-getter -- also goes through.

I have issues with this concept (because if the top three vote-getters were all boys (for example), and the first girl was the fourth on the list, somebody's getting hosed for the sake of gender parity), but that's not the point.

On elimination night, Ryan Seacrest picks two or three individuals for the first culling and pulls them aside to discuss their performances, get a few last digs in. All well and good. But no matter who actually passes through -- boy or girl -- the *next* group he chooses for culling has to be all of one gender. It has to be.

Because if it isn't, the show has tipped its hand.

Look, we know you have 60 minutes to pad out, with approximately 22 of them being ads. The content factor is perhaps 7 minutes, tops. So we know you have to play games rather than announcing winners like lotto balls.

But give us a little credit. Of course if a boy goes into the seat the first go-around the next one chosen has to be a girl, because otherwise you've just announced to whatever leftover boys sitting and waiting in the bleachers to be called after that second round that they're screwed. If you get two boys in those seats, the last one is a girl's, based on the dumbass rules already set up.

And we know you're not going to let those kids twisting in the bleacher seats learn they're out of the competition without a camera on them. Nobody on AI is going to pass up the opportunity to get a front-and-center look of dismay when someone realizes they're out.

So when you stand up there and dither about whether this boy or this girl will take the next seat available, I promise you: Most of us have already figured it out.

So quit it. Find a better way. Like, maybe, the one you used to use.

Love,
Randee

crossposted at Facebook

Today I have been assaulted by poor spelling.

I've come to learn to live with this. The fact is that most people can't spell, or don't give a shit about checking, so you end up with ignorance that spreads like rancid icing over a freshly-baked cake.

But when it comes from supposedly reputable sources, I get crazy.

From today's NY Times Opinion Page - the Editorial Opinion of the Newspaper of Record:

"Hungry people who get federal food aid don't horde it."

I saw this in print. I was sad all over again to see nobody fixed it for the Web page.

Then, today I received some entries for a contest in which I am a judge. The letter accompanying them used "currier" instead of "courier."

Who uses "currier" for anything except to go with "& Ives"?

The organization?

The Society of Professional Journalists.

And now, off to flay myself.

Adam

Sing it, brother.

Yeah, he's loud and can be obnoxious, but I'm a carryover fan of Adam Carolla's from his "Loveline" days with Dr. Drew (on whom I had an unseemly crush for some time).

Adam's been doing this great morning show with KLSX in Los Angeles for a while, and I stumbled upon the podcast version of it (just the show cut up into chunks) via iTunes. Didn't care for all of it, but the great idea with the chunky bits was I could grab what I wanted. One of my favorites: "Made Up Movie," where folks called in with a movie title and he and his cohorts made up movies based on it. And a lot of them sounded not just plausible, but better than a lot of the dreck on the big screen.

When I ran into Joel McHale (a frequent guest on Adam's show, where he plugs "The Soup" every week) we had a great time discussing just how awesome Adam's show is.

Anyway, KLSX decided to go all-music, which is what always happens when I find something I like, so Adam's show went dark on Friday.

Today, he started with his own personal podcast, which is an obviously stripped-down version of his real show -- no cohorts, no guests, no phone ins, but he's working on it.

Yes, this is the guy who brought us "The Man Show," but he's actually quite brilliant. Jimmy Kimmel, his buddy and fellow "Man Show" host is doing quite well -- it's time for Adam to do the same. He's got a CBS sitcom pilot that just got picked up, but frankly, I'm happy if he just stays on the radio.

Me, I'll be tuning in. Here's where you can get the daily podcasts, for now. Alert to those with pure, innocent ears: He swears quite a bit.