Current location:	work
Current mood:	pensive

It Seems You're Having Some Trouble In Dealing With These Changes
I can't embed since I'm at work, but I'm trusting that this is the same video I watched this morning (and if I had any brains, I would've started my LJ entry then, and then restored from saved draft this afternoon) before I left for work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pnCvZ-yBOs

I wasn't going to say anything originally, because I wouldn't exactly call myself a fan of his (I don't own any of his albums, or anything) but then I thought of this and I figured I might as well continue my really bizarre trend of posting the things these celebrities would least like (or expect) to be remembered for after they passed. (I have nothing for Farah Fawcett; this sums it up nicely. Although I will say this; do you know what really does it for me in this poster? Not her nipple; most nipples look alike. No, it's her smile. Tell me, what does it say about our society that the sexiest look our models can muster is this? I'm not even saying anything about her personally or even esthetically; just her expression. Doesn't anyone find women who actually look like they want you to find them sexy attractive anymore?)

Back to Michael. I will say this; he is the only artist Weird Al parodied more than once. He had a quality and quantity of material rarely matched in this world. Am I going to judge him based on his personal life? Not any more than I judge Hall of Famer Ty Cobb. I can appreciate the contribution he made to music--and to the entire gestalt of 1980-1989--without paying him to babysit my kids.

But celebrity deaths in general...whose death would you say affected you the most? I remember being pretty inconsolable when Jim Henson died, and the special they did for him after the fact had me weeping unashamedly. I was depressed all day the day Mister Rogers died, and everything I've ever read about him since has justified that, you cannot dig up dirt on that man, he was as wonderful as his onscreen personality made you think. Who's yours?

Celebrities die every year--they do a retrospective of it at the Oscars. Some live out their lives and go quietly and peacefully, like Ed McMahon, like Bea Arthur, like Eartha Kitt. Some go well before their time, like Heath Ledger, like Mitch Hedburg, like Phil Hartman, like Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix and John Belushi and Gilda Radner and how far back do we want to go here? The older we get, the more of our childhood icons are going to go. And our current ones. Barring (your) accidents, you are going to hear when Johnny Depp dies. You are going to hear when Will Smith dies. You are going to hear when Harrison Ford dies. You are going to hear when Tom Hanks dies. Whose future death do you think is going to sadden you the most?

I guess what I'm trying to say is two things: one, and I've said this before, no one is guaranteed tomorrow. I'm not saying you should blow all your money and live it up today, because good odds say you will be here tomorrow, but there are a lot of little things you can do to improve each shining hour. Kiss your boyfriend, kiss your best girlfriend, kiss your mom, kiss your cat. And two, be nice to grumpy old people. When you think about it, living long enough robs you of your physical comfort, your sex drive, your family, your friends, and though you don't really think about it often, even people who you just somehow never thought of as mortal.

Third thought; Keith Richards: still alive.