Apparently dropping cable for the summer was not enough. i was quite enjoying the ability to just scan through a handful of stations to see if anything worth watching was on and then turning the TV off if nothing was on those few channels. Although a few home shopping channels somehow survived the cut i am markedly happier not having to ever skip though those cable news channels. They ALL regularly over-sensationalize some story (and they all seem to always pick the same story... intriguing) and cover it for an entirely inappropriate length of time. i have always found it to be down right badgering.
Unfortunately lately, even with the removal of myself from the cable news world i am again feeling utterly badgered by the media. No, the paparazzi are not digging through my garbage or taking pictures of me and my ladyfriend as we leave the movie theater. i am referring to the death of Michael Jackson.
Soon after his death i decided i would not rant about him. i would not rant about him being a broken human being likely due to his abuse as a child. i would not rant about his being a child molester (yeah he was not found guilty but neither was OJ). i would not rant about his medically altered appearance/transformation. Whatever beefs and problems i may have had no longer matter. He is dead. He is no longer causing problems, he is no longer experiencing problems. Picking a fight with a corpse is pointlessly one sided and unfair.
Picking a fight with a ghost however is a completely different story. How would that work? i could not throw punches but do ghosts have feelings to hurt? Where could i get my hands on a proton gun like the Ghostbusters? Would i have to sign a waiver stating that i promised not to cross streams?
Michael Jackson is not my problem right now. The media coverage of his death is. As i am attempting to mature and become a better person i am trying to be more patient, more meditative, attempting to let things go, allowing things to just run their course. This just will not fucking go away though!
i have tried very hard but tonight i finally reached my tipping point. i have avoided the TV. i have skipped viewing online news sites (figuring someone would tell me if we entered a third war... or are we up to three already? i keep losing track). But today while grocery shopping it happened. While rolling (yes rolling, one foot on shopping cart/trolley the other kicking) down the chip/magazine isle i snuck a peak to see if anything good was in the new issue of Thrasher Magazine. It was as if i was wondering through an amusement park's Hall of Mirrors and ol' MJ himself were standing right behind me. His face was EVERYWHERE.
The week of his death: to be expected. The week after his death: sure, this was their last chance - last opportunity to use him to continue selling magazines. i figured they would milk it but how many weeks do we have to endure? Magazines with nothing to do with music or celebrities still have him on the cover.
A few years back, some of you may remember the days and weeks following September eleventh. We were told "United We Stand", light a candle and put it on your front steps, then go back to shopping at the mall otherwise the terrorist will win.
Here we are WEEKS after the death of a pop star (that is right: a pop star, no matter how much you fucking liked him as an artists he was still JUST A POP STAR) and it is still getting more media attention than this same number of weeks after the United States was attacked by a terrorist plot.
At this point anyone who views the media as a credible source for knowledge deserves to have their head examined... no, strike that. Save the money of getting their heads examined (as these are tough financial times and all) for i can tell you, expensive scan free, that their heads are empty. Buying and watching this shite only encourages the media, but of course this would not still be going on if people did not continue to eat this shite up and spend ridiculous amounts of money along the way.
The odder of my Irish American relatives have always seemed oddly overjoyed at the prospect of going to funerals. It appears that the rest of America has (hopefully only temporarily) caught this same odd personality tick. Maybe it is just society using one of it's artist to live out their emotions once again. With the globe in a financial pit, our planet's environment degrading, and seemingly endless wars people were possibly looking for an excuse to vent their grief, their sadness. Were they all just grasping for some unifying tragedy to express themselves through?
Ah fuck it. We are not a bunch of two year olds. Quite your fucking whining. When it comes to serious issues everyone claims ADD. Now all of a sudden these same people have been focused on one issue for weeks on end. This is just like a fucking baseball game: excruciating to witness and having no set time limit. Was that lightning? Lets end this game.
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