When I appeared back to the surface this morning . .

. . . from my daily light rail trip into Hollywood, I thought I had the whole day figured out.  In fact, Hollywood Boulevard was already shut down early this morning in preparation for tonight's world premiere of "Brüno".  I had a few places in mind to walk to for lunch that were well away from the Boulevard.  All of the tourists (God love 'em!) tend to clump like dust bunnies to the underside of a bed when all of the barricades, grandstands, carpeting and Krieg lights are trotted out onto the Boulevard.

Then, as I'm getting close to my morning break, the news of Farrah Fawcett's passing spread.  Truthfully, her death was not a huge surprise.  She had spent a good deal of time battling cancer.  Having lost three family members to cancer, I could only feel relief when I heard of her passing, knowing that all of the pain and suffering were no more.  Her fans set up a beautiful tribute on her Walk of Fame star. It was the nicest one I had seen in the many months I have worked in the Hollywood area:

Gossip abounded in between calls at work today about her death.  News vans queued along the Boulevard:

I left for lunch at 12:30 and returned an hour later to news from CNN about singer Michael Jackson being rushed to the hospital.

More gossip continued in between calls during the early afternoon until after I returned from my afternoon break to hear/read about Michael Jackson's death.

Now, just about after 4 pm Pacific today, where I was becoming accustomed to a fast paced last hour of work, a pall had descended over the office and the call volume slowed to a crawl.

I knew that the walk to the Metro station would easily take twice as long between the movie premiere, fans of Farrah paying their respects, Jimmy Kimmel's show being taped, a private event at the El Capitan theatre and, as I mentioned earlier, tourists clumped together in larger groups in a now even smaller space.

Unfortunately, Mr. Jackson's star on the Walk of Fame resides under the "ü" in "Brüno":

So, flowers, etc., for Michael Jackson were placed about 2 feet away from where I took this photo.  As was always the case in the last three months of my grand Hollywood adventure, it was European tourists who were taking photos of the makeshift Jackson memorial.  Every time I walked past Michael Jackson's Star, there were always a European tourist or two (I can tell this by the fashion choices -- believe me, the same is true when Americans travel in Europe - our fashion sense makes us stick out like sore thumbs) snapping photos of Michael Jackson's Star.

It seems he has never really left the hearts of people outside of the U.S.  It's too soon to tell if the U.S. had left Michael Jackson behind and we are just now trying to make up for lost time.

While I was never really a fan of Farrah, I liked Michael Jackson as much as anyone else.  In fact, at the age of 10, the first album I ever bought was "Off The Wall".  I wore down the grooves in the vinyl and was happy to be able to replace it with a CD years ago.

I'm signing out and headed to iTunes to try and build a Michael Jackson cover tunes playlist (such as Alien Ant Farm's version of "Smooth Criminal" -- one of the best Michael Jackson covers of all time) to enjoy over and over this weekend.

Even if you were never a fan of either star, please take the weekend to let those you love know that you love them, you appreciate them and you cannot imagine your life without them.  Days like this serve to remind all of us that we really don't know how much time we have left to say the things we want to say.

Peace!

At what is everyone staring?

Sounds awkward for a title?  Yes.  Is it grammatically correct?  Yes.

I'll let Cenk of The Young Turks tell today's sad yet hilarious tale of American Politician Sex Scandal gone horribly awry

This nearly 8 minute clip, I'm sure, beats trying to sort through Governor Sanford's rambling mess of a news conference.  I saw all I needed on Olbermann to get the idea.  I could not help but stare at the clips, especially the body language of the Governor.  As an aside, I could use a few good lessons on reading body language, but in my extraordinarily amateur opinion, there was a lot of looking downward as he apologized to his staff.  If I were one of that staff, I'd have to feel like that was not much of an apology at all.

I kept noticing throughout the day what sort of power is taken by and given to staring.  For instance, a 30 second stare by me and my boss at work at a particularly noisy bunch of coworkers silenced them and elicited an hasty and heartfelt apology.

No doubt my split between dry coughing and phlegm hacking during the day was stare-worthy.  But, knowing the power of the stare, I knew where to keep my gaze so as to avoid the effects.

As I walked past the Knitting Factory on my way home today, I couldn't help but stare at the queue of young people dressed in black (yeah, fellow metalheads!) wrapped around the building waiting to enter.  As I crossed the street, someone yelled out something about "thetruth.com" or "thetruth.org".  All of that yelling by this one idiot elicited, yes you guessed it, stares from all the folks in line.

A well timed stare at someone back home who said something they should not have said when they thought their manager was not listening was enough to send that someone very quickly back to their own apartment -- with repercussions being none of my business.

A series of particularly evil and quick stares leveled by a silver-haired woman on the train ride home toward a young woman seated on the other side of the aisle who had a toddler pressed against her tube-topped breast was more amusing to watch than anything.  The young woman either didn't notice the stare or didn't care.

Then, there is the on-going story of events in Iran.  It is still next to impossible not to stare at the video clips -- now mostly from state-run TV rather than amateur video -- when they air on the all-news cable channels.

Oh, if only the whole "staring as correction" vibe worked at that long of a distance.

". . .He who controls the past, controls the future."

This was as close as I dared to get to Ed McMahon's star on the Walk of Fame today.  From my just before 8 a.m. arrival to Hollywood through my 5:15 p.m. departure from the area, there were professional photographers, TV cameras and, at one point, up to three satellite TV news vans in the area.

If you squint and stare far enough into the distance, you may see a few fronds and some flowers arranged around the star.  This was in stark contrast to the scene around David Carradine's star a few weeks ago.  Just after his death, candles were lit, floral arrangement abounded included a TV funeral style ring of flowers mounted on an easel.

I will leave it to those who are much better versed in the finer points of the entertainment business, the death of its stars and why some people receive a different reception than others.

Sadly, it appears the government in Iran has put its own spin on the heartbreaking death of a young woman in Tehran days ago.  People much better versed in the politics and the mood of the country than I are even now still stumped about whether toned-down versions of protests (strikes, work slowdowns, etc.) later this week will move things forward, push things backward or become a slow, steady drip of change.

Still, it stands to reason that those who are in control of the story of people's deaths are bound to be in control of so much more than that.

And, uh, Allahu Akbar!

Ignorance

More so than in most times, so much ignorance, obliviousness and tunnel-vision abounds.

To be fair, I've been fighting a cold complete with fever, coughing, etc., since the 19th (it's one of the reasons I didn't visit with Amma on Friday).  I spent much of the weekend sleeping, vegging in front of the TV and inhaling menthol (suspended in petroleum jelly, not on a cigarette.  I tried that last about 3 days ago and it was a disaster -- smoking the cig, not rubbing the stuff on the chest . . . you know what I mean).

It is incredibly easy to ignore a whole lot of stuff in a fevered haze.  It all started on Friday's train ride home.  I think the fever was starting up because I could not keep a happy, goofy grin off of my face, especially around good looking dudes.  The fact that I'd get a goofy grin here and there in return was only fueling me to continue.  I am hopeful this is a lesson I'll retain once the cold passes later this week -- what a joy to get a smile returned when I gave one!

Our apartment is scheduled for painting next week, so I had advertised for extra pairs of hands to help move big furniture on Saturday.  I got exactly one pair of hands to help.  Luckily, it was the correct pair of hands and most of the big furniture is now smashed together in the center of each room.  I then had (and needed) the rest of the day to sleep and get at least one load of laundry done.

I played hookey from church on Sunday (though, I suspect, if I went I would have likely slept through the Sermon.  With a guest speaker giving the Sermon and my church being on the small side, my snoring would have been quite obvious).  I watched This Week and just couldn't manage the energy to throw something at the TV.  If I thought that throwing something would have shaken the Republican talking head back to reality regarding a recent survey of America's willingness to have a public health care option, I would have just upended the TV.

Thankfully, for the TV, there was no chance that anything like that was going to happen.

Thankfully, as well, I caught Fareed Zakaria GPS later yesterday for a level-headed roundtable discussion on what is really happening in Iran these days.

Lacking any sick time (or, apparently, any sense whatsoever) today, I was off to work, cough and fever and all, hoping I could just push through the day.  Blessedly I did, but not without having to ignore that I had forgotten to wear a belt (which got more challenging as the day drudged on) and to keep separated from the fellow passengers, beggars and street musicians.

With many thanks to Olbermann, I think the ultimate in ignorance has been found.  O'Fallon, Missouri, by the way, is quite the destination in the far, far western 'burb of St. Louis.

If the State Representative's June Newsletter is any sign, then it appears that the center of the country is, sadly, the center of ignorance.

Here I am on the evening of June 19

Not in a Raddison in L.A, I'm afraid.  I managed to catch a nasty cold that, like all others, has drizzled into my lungs like so much icing on a coffee cake.  I drip, I cough, I sweat and am now slathered in menthol.

Not much in a darshan mood tonight, I'm afraid.  With any luck, someone has taken my place at the ballroom and is hearing the message, singing the songs, receiving darshan or maybe meeting that someone special tonight over deep fried eggplant and curried rice.

A nasty cold has not deaden my romantic streak, it seems.

Since I'm not receiving the love tonight, I found a couple of stories that moved me in a loving and positive way.

First, a lovely story of prison inmates who are taught how to train puppies as service dogs. The inmates then are given a puppy each to train on how to be a service dog to returning veterans.  Such adorable puppies and dogs, such wonderful things these dogs do to help not only with physical but also heal emotional/psychological wounds one lick at a time.

Your heart not melted yet?  Eyes not filled with a little bit of tears?

Entertainment Tonight has compiled an essential tool for most any kind of gay man to have on hand when times get difficult.  And, with increasing unemployment, dropping wages and health care in a state of chaos, why shouldn't we turn to the ever-so-fluffy world of entertainment for a healthy dose of distraction.  Here you go.  You're welcome !

Finally, I have been rotating through my decent sized library of tunes to rediscover songs I couldn't play enough the first time around and from which I needed a break.  After discovering that my MP3 player's program lets me set the base volume for each song individually.  The song I found and added back to my player was one of those whose volume was way louder than it should be.

A quick fix and the song "Author" by Shimmerplanet, is back on the player and I'm falling for it all over again.  The link above gets you to Shimmerplanet's My Space page where you can check out "Author" and, if you like it like I do, all the big music download sites have this and his other tunes available for purchase.

Better to spend a little now then get sued and, well . . you can see the rest here.

Rest well and happy tonight!