Trouble on the Homefront 2

This is a must read from fellow blogger Tony over at Tuesdaysblog.com if you're an artist, work in the arts, enjoy the arts, or have any interaction on any level with people who might be identified as "employees."

Be sure to check the comments as well.

In Other News...

Michael Jackson is still dead.

But just in case you weren't sure, feel free to click on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and your local news network. They're keeping tabs on him. Don't you worry.

I know this isn't going to be a popular post (2 out of the 6 people that read this may even comment in outrage), but I thought the memorial service at the Staples Center was bizarre, indulgent, and more than anything...incredibly disingenuous.

There I said it.

I can see a concert. I understand the fans (even the 15 year old boys who post vlogs of them crying their eyes out over the loss of whom I can only imagine was their close, personal friend, Michael) need to mourn. Collectively. And publically. On international television. Honestly, that makes tooooootal sense to me...

But the casket? The Family? The children?? It just felt wrong. Why couldn't it have been a completely private affair? Why couldn't they mourn him on their own? Why did it need to be a televised, money-maker? I mean, the DVD sales alone are going to be outrageous. And who gets that money? The kids? The estate? Or, more likely, the producers of the event? Overnight the media will turn Paris, Prince, and Blanket into Kennedys. Should we expect Brooke Shield's career to make a sudden rise? As it is with most funerals, this was not about Michael, this was about US. And that's where, for me, it gets overindulgent and disingenuous.

And Campbell Brown...tsk tsk tsk. Campbell, Campbell, Campbell... With stars (or were they dollar signs?) in her eyes, smiles and asks Larry King (who, himself, had just recently landed after circling the remains), in regards to the ensuing child custody and financial custody trials, "Does this mean...a whole YEAR of Michael Jackson!!??"

I think MJ was an incredible performing artist and singer and dancer and all the stuff that we saw him do. Personally? No clue. Other than to say that I don't believe you can dispute that he lead a bizarre life. And a tragic one. So let's let him rest in peace.

On the otherhand, after such a bizarre life, perhaps this was the most appropriate way to say goodbye.

I'm gonna go watch CNN to find out which it is...

The Getty, The Getty, The Getty's on Fire!

Early reports had this fire, which slowed down traffic in the crucial-to-most-rush-hour-drivers Sepulveda pass, and subsequently every canyon route, and most surrounding surface streets thereafter, starting after 1pm.

But as the LA Times reports, it was sparked at 12:44pm, which was the exact time I was getting on the 405-North, and commented to my father on the phone, "Oh my god, the Getty's on fire!"

16-14 = 15

Federer becomes number one, in the world, in history.