Thoughts on Mr. Jackson (not Jesse)

So... it's been 4 days since Michael's passing, and how are we coping with the loss of the King of Pop? It's difficult to say. You see, on the one (ungloved) hand, it was a surprise, but was it a shock? I don't think so. Mr. Jackson wasn't in the greatest of health, he was trying to reclaim his once immense glory that really hadn't been on scale with anything he had done since maaaybe 1991. I do remember when the premiere of 'Black and White' was a national television event, and then there was the backlash against the end of the video, when he went ballistic on a police car. And that was 18 years ago, so you see, other than hiring lawyers and sitting in court rooms, good 'ol king o' pop hadn't been up to much musically in quite a while.

So that brings us to the Michael Jackson tributes, first and foremost the BET Awards broadcast Sunday night from Los Angeles. Supposedly they had been totally revamped since Thursday to make way for MJ honors, however maybe it would have been better to leave the show the way it was. The opening, with New Edition - was okay, it's always weird when, in order to honor a fallen legend, entertainers who were relevant 20 years ago are brought back to sing. Would it have been that difficult to get the rest of Michael's brothers onstage to sing their classic hits? ( I don't think they are that busy). Remember when New Edition morphed into Bell Biv Devoe by way of losing Bobby Brown and that other guy? I think Sunday night showed why BBD was the true talent and Mr. Brown was just an extra who was looking for a platform. What I'm saying is I didn't like New Edition's rendition of the Jackson 5 hits.

In addition to that 'tribute', the show was shaky, with a lot of time spent on presenters trying to catch up with the teleprompter, and thanking Michael Jackson for everything even though their performances sucked. Lil Wayne and Birdman came out to sing a song that was 75% bleeped, and were accompanied on stage by girls- not women - girls, who couldn't have been 18 years old, adding to a very odd and somewhat inappropriate tribute to MJ.

Hopefully the London concerts will fill the tribute void that the BET Awards fell short of.

I'm Irate and Jon and Kate...

There's no real good way to put this, but the TV duo known as Jon and Kate is maddeningly annoying, obnoxious, and a waste of public resources. I know, I get it, they cashed in on the reality tv craze because they have 8 children and wouldn't it be fun to see the trials and tribulations of two people raising that many kids. It's sort of like the deal with Jim Bob Duggar and his (I think) 18 children - although, they are mormons and therefore have more rules to follow and are slightly more boring. But I digress.

Having seen 1 (one) episode of the show, featuring the Teutel Boys showing off their custom made bikes to the children, all I can gather from the proceedings is that Kate is a real b*itch and Jon does not know what he's doing in a marriage with 8 children. But that's okay, it's a common problem when you marry a woman and have so many children, whoops? who knew - I'm sure there's a Meet Up group for that. So, more importantly, the show doesn't get interesting until there are marital difficulties between the two, and then, uh oh, a very special episode of Jon and Kate, where they announce the separation and show hiatus. Oh, that's fair, that's fine, maybe there were some issues in the relationship, like being married to a bitchy woman and having 8 toddlers and TV cameras following you around. Just a thought.

But here is where the real problem is - the problem that sticks out the most. They are separating and the show is on hiatus, ok great - let's leave them on hiatus, but no no, that would mean there is no media tour and no appearance on The View or Larry King or The Early Show or The Insider or what have you. The media no longer knows how to cover real news, it can only cover made up news that involves people put into uncomfortable personal situations. I don't need to see 'status' updates of Jon and Kate on CNN.com, THAT is not news worthy - it's as newsworthy as hearing the Real Housewives of New Jersey fight about plastic surgery, which was very similar the Real Housewives of New York fight about how famous they each were - it ISN'T news, and shouldn't be treated as such. Yet, we've become such a voyeuristicly (word?) fake culture that we follow made up celebrities and their made up problems - we can't even follow the real stuff anymore.

What I'm saying is... if I never have to hear about Jon and Kate and The Real Housewives of Anywhere, again, I will be, once again, a happy viewer of TMZ. :-)

Biased in Boston...

So here we are, the Lakers, led by Sir Kobe, have been crowned as the NBA Champs, again. This gives them 15 titles, trailing only Boston (17 titles) as the dominant team in NBA history. This was the title that would take Kobe out of Shaq's shadow, to prove that he didn't need his dominant, mic-wielding, ass-tasting, twittering, sort-of-buffoonish, former teammate to win it all. So all I can say is, good for Kobe, just awesome, really, great. (oh yeah, FU!).

Also we have the story of one Mr. P. Jackson of Chicago, then LA, and now again with L.A. He of the 9 (now 10 NBA coaching titles) surpassing Arnold 'Red' Auerbach as the pre-eminent coach in NBA History. To Phil, I say... wait for it, wait for it... grow back the moustache, your face is creepy. Oh, were you expecting congratulations?

The argument will be, and as in most sports arguments, this one will not likely ever be settled - who is the better coach, Phil or Red? Some will say, and by 'some' I mean, I will say, that Red's mean more because he built his teams from scratch, acting as both the Coach and General Manager, maneuvering and wheeling and dealing to construct his basketball empire. Phil, on the other hand, well he just kind of showed up. He took out his binoculars and saw Michael and Scottie playing some basketball, said 'hey, i'd like me a piece of that' and went over to join them and won 3 championships. Then Michael took his ball and went home, and by 'home' I mean to play baseball, leaving Phil to his devices. Then Mr. Jordan returned, triumphantly, with Phil waiting patiently in his ergonomically correct courtside seat, and they won 3 more. Oh yeah and then he did the same thing in Los Angeles after Shaq was traded in 2000, so you see, he didn't built anything, he just coached really great players - there's a difference.

So, what does all this mean? It means that while Phil Jackson now has his 1o rings, and is undoubtedly a great coach, the fact is... he showed up when the great players arrived, as opposed to acquiring and molding them players - and that is something he will have to live with. Tee hee hee.

P.S. (KG, get that knee healed and shut up all those flaky ESPN pundits).

The Fallon Gong

If Jimmy Fallon doesn't stop laughing through his sketches, I'm going to ask for his immediate replacement - seriously, if you're going to do a comedy sketch, the point isn't for you to laugh through the whole thing. No one else does that, not ever, they just don't do it, it is doesn't, it is that which is not done in a comedy sketch. It's okay to maybe laugh once, but not throughout the damn thing.

Sincerely,

Angry Adam.

Late Night...

Conan is 4 nights into his new gig on the Tonight Show, so far - eh, he's doing what he can under the circumstances of the new time slot. He does a lot of remote bits, which are fine, but not necessarily as funny when they are done every other night. Good to see In the Year 2 thou- I mean 3000 back in action, just waiting for Triumph and the Masturbating Bear to make an appearance.

Jimmy Fallon still laughs too much at his own bits, especially when they aren't funny. He goes into the audience a lot, usually not a great idea, since he's not good at playing off the audience. Dave and Conan are good at that, not yet Jimmy's territory.

Craig Ferguson is just a wild and crazy scot, does his own thing, with hand puppets mind you.