End of June Blog
This week lets talk about Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett, Transformers and Ale.
Welcome to another wonderful week at Bogworld.com. What a frakking bizarre week it was. Especially if you’re someone obsessed with 1980s celebrity icons. In one day we lost the King of Pop and the Queen of all posters. Where do I begin?
The King (of Pop) is Dead
Are you like me? In the back of your mind you’re still really thinking this has all been just another one of those bizarre publicity stunts and Michael is probably going to turn up again wandering Main Street USA at Disneyland. Admit it. It is the sort of thing Jackson might do.
But since its pretty hard to fake a death that included a postmortem examination by the LA county medical examiner. I guess we have to concede he is probably really dead.
I know there are a lot of people in the press who would like to dwell on Jackson’s odd relationship with children. I don’t want to do that. Those things are allegations that we might not ever know more about. So I am going to choose to focus on the good things Michael Jackson brought to the world...
Music and dance.
Back in the 80s when music and music videos were the main source of popular entertainment, Michael Jackson was the one figure that everyone seemed to like. You might have been into heavy metal or punk or new age or disco. But if Jackon had a new record out almost everyone ran out to the store to get it.
Jackson was one of the first artists to really see the power of combining visuals with music. He took music videos from a cheap promotional tool to a real cinematic art form. He brought dance back in a big way after disco had almost killed it. He turned big stadium music shows into multimedia events. And he successfully crossed styles of music. Bringing artists together from all music styles in the production of his records. He was one of the first to bring musicians together for major causes.
We’ve talked enough about his nose and skin and those kids. In his passing, lets give the guy a break and remember him for the good things he brought to the world.
Oh Man Do I Remember the Farah Fawcett Poster
I think it was a right of passage for all heterosexual boys growing up in the early 80s to have that amazing Farah poster on their bedroom wall. I remember hanging out at a friends house who had that poster on the inside of this bedroom door. We spotted a spider running across the top of the door that day. He got a chair and climbed up to attempt to kill the bug. At that very moment the friends dad tried to enter the room. The Dad immediately thought his kid was doing something lude to the poster and grounded the kid for a week. THAT was the power of that poster. It made even innocent actions happening in its vicinity. That’s how hot that poster was back then.
Back in the early 80s there was no one more glamourous than Farah.
In her final months Farah did something remarkably unglamorous and remarkably heroic. She opened her life up to the world to reveal her very personal struggle with cancer.
Maybe the result of this final brave act of her life will show the world how were all vulnerable to this sickness and how there is still a lot of research and progress we could make so more families wont have to lose more loved ones. Maybe it will inspire us all to do more, to give more, to fight cancer.
Transformers, More Than Meets the Eyes.
It would be hard to find a movie getting worse reviews than Transformers 2, Revenge of the Fallen. I mean movie reviewers are being brutal in their opinion of this flick. The vast majority of professional film critics HATE this movie.
And yet its probably going to become the biggest grossing movie of this summer. People are coming to see it in droves and you know what? From my own polling of my many movie going friends, they are really enjoying Transformers 2.
So who are you supposed to believe?
Well here’s my take on it...
I really kind of wanted to hate this movie too. I kinda think Michael Bay is functionally retarded. He’s like the Hollywood version of Rainman. He might not be able to tie his shoes or write three consecutive coherent words in the form of a script. But somehow he can capture explosions and car chases really really well.
Yet when it comes to a Transformers movie, he’s exactly the right guy for the job. Transformers after all are alien beings who turn into cars that chase each other and blow lots of things up.
And in a base way, that turns out to be entertaining enough to like Transformers 2. Its like watching on long car crash. I want to turn away. But I just can’t.
I know its incredibly stupid. I know the only things that act worse than giant metal CGI beings are Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. I know Michael Bay’s sense of humor only seems to consist of dog humping and jokes involving testicles. I know this movie is basically two hours and forty five minutes of explosions, crashes and chase scenes. I know that the only redeeming thing about this entire movie is probably Megan Fox in short shorts draped over a motorcycle in the first ten minutes of the movie.
And yet somehow I still kind of liked the movie.
Maybe there’s still room in this world for a completely mindless summer blockbuster. For all those critics who are panning Transformers 2... Its a movie based on plastic toy action figures. What the frak did you expect when you came to the theater, Hamlet?
The Hangover
One of my coworkers made an interesting observation last week. He said he did not like going to comedy movies anymore because somewhere along the way they all became about humiliation and degradation of people. And you know what? If you think about it. He’s mostly right about that. Comedy is sort of becoming a lost art form. You rarely see movies that derive their humor from character development or dialogue any more. More often than not these days its more about someone finding themselves in crude and embarrassing situations.
The Hangover doesn’t exactly break that trend. Its characters are put in so many embarrassing and crude situations they themselves cannot remember them all. And yet there is a weird subtle sweetness to this strange buddy movie.
Yes it rude and gross and a lot of the humor comes from embarrassing situations. But there is a hint of humanity that comes through it somehow. And that makes me willing to forgive it and really sort of like it.
God knows I am no prude. Unlike my co-worker I really don’t need to have high brow rules in what does and doesn’t make me laugh. The Hangover made me laugh pretty hard.
Tell Your Friends
Bogworld exists and succeeds because of you. Please continue to share the toons you like here with your friends and encourage them to share them with their friends. Lets make Bogworld something really special on the interweb.
Speaking of which, a really good friend of mine has a really amazing song on iTunes right now. You can get a taste of his work here...
www.alemusicmn.com
Alejandro is an amazing recording artists and a really good friend of mine. He’s finally getting his big break. His music is becoming available on the biggest internet music sources out there. iTunes! His first song, Too Bad, is amazing. Please check it out and tell all your friends to check it out too. Lets do a little famous Bogworld networking. Lets see if we cannot help a really talented guy get noticed by the rest of the world one friend at a time!
The King (of Pop) is Dead
Are you like me? In the back of your mind you’re still really thinking this has all been just another one of those bizarre publicity stunts and Michael is probably going to turn up again wandering Main Street USA at Disneyland. Admit it. It is the sort of thing Jackson might do.
But since its pretty hard to fake a death that included a postmortem examination by the LA county medical examiner. I guess we have to concede he is probably really dead.
I know there are a lot of people in the press who would like to dwell on Jackson’s odd relationship with children. I don’t want to do that. Those things are allegations that we might not ever know more about. So I am going to choose to focus on the good things Michael Jackson brought to the world...
Music and dance.
Back in the 80s when music and music videos were the main source of popular entertainment, Michael Jackson was the one figure that everyone seemed to like. You might have been into heavy metal or punk or new age or disco. But if Jackon had a new record out almost everyone ran out to the store to get it.
Jackson was one of the first artists to really see the power of combining visuals with music. He took music videos from a cheap promotional tool to a real cinematic art form. He brought dance back in a big way after disco had almost killed it. He turned big stadium music shows into multimedia events. And he successfully crossed styles of music. Bringing artists together from all music styles in the production of his records. He was one of the first to bring musicians together for major causes.
We’ve talked enough about his nose and skin and those kids. In his passing, lets give the guy a break and remember him for the good things he brought to the world.
Oh Man Do I Remember the Farah Fawcett Poster
I think it was a right of passage for all heterosexual boys growing up in the early 80s to have that amazing Farah poster on their bedroom wall. I remember hanging out at a friends house who had that poster on the inside of this bedroom door. We spotted a spider running across the top of the door that day. He got a chair and climbed up to attempt to kill the bug. At that very moment the friends dad tried to enter the room. The Dad immediately thought his kid was doing something lude to the poster and grounded the kid for a week. THAT was the power of that poster. It made even innocent actions happening in its vicinity. That’s how hot that poster was back then.
Back in the early 80s there was no one more glamourous than Farah.
In her final months Farah did something remarkably unglamorous and remarkably heroic. She opened her life up to the world to reveal her very personal struggle with cancer.
Maybe the result of this final brave act of her life will show the world how were all vulnerable to this sickness and how there is still a lot of research and progress we could make so more families wont have to lose more loved ones. Maybe it will inspire us all to do more, to give more, to fight cancer.
Transformers, More Than Meets the Eyes.
It would be hard to find a movie getting worse reviews than Transformers 2, Revenge of the Fallen. I mean movie reviewers are being brutal in their opinion of this flick. The vast majority of professional film critics HATE this movie.
And yet its probably going to become the biggest grossing movie of this summer. People are coming to see it in droves and you know what? From my own polling of my many movie going friends, they are really enjoying Transformers 2.
So who are you supposed to believe?
Well here’s my take on it...
I really kind of wanted to hate this movie too. I kinda think Michael Bay is functionally retarded. He’s like the Hollywood version of Rainman. He might not be able to tie his shoes or write three consecutive coherent words in the form of a script. But somehow he can capture explosions and car chases really really well.
Yet when it comes to a Transformers movie, he’s exactly the right guy for the job. Transformers after all are alien beings who turn into cars that chase each other and blow lots of things up.
And in a base way, that turns out to be entertaining enough to like Transformers 2. Its like watching on long car crash. I want to turn away. But I just can’t.
I know its incredibly stupid. I know the only things that act worse than giant metal CGI beings are Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. I know Michael Bay’s sense of humor only seems to consist of dog humping and jokes involving testicles. I know this movie is basically two hours and forty five minutes of explosions, crashes and chase scenes. I know that the only redeeming thing about this entire movie is probably Megan Fox in short shorts draped over a motorcycle in the first ten minutes of the movie.
And yet somehow I still kind of liked the movie.
Maybe there’s still room in this world for a completely mindless summer blockbuster. For all those critics who are panning Transformers 2... Its a movie based on plastic toy action figures. What the frak did you expect when you came to the theater, Hamlet?
The Hangover
One of my coworkers made an interesting observation last week. He said he did not like going to comedy movies anymore because somewhere along the way they all became about humiliation and degradation of people. And you know what? If you think about it. He’s mostly right about that. Comedy is sort of becoming a lost art form. You rarely see movies that derive their humor from character development or dialogue any more. More often than not these days its more about someone finding themselves in crude and embarrassing situations.
The Hangover doesn’t exactly break that trend. Its characters are put in so many embarrassing and crude situations they themselves cannot remember them all. And yet there is a weird subtle sweetness to this strange buddy movie.
Yes it rude and gross and a lot of the humor comes from embarrassing situations. But there is a hint of humanity that comes through it somehow. And that makes me willing to forgive it and really sort of like it.
God knows I am no prude. Unlike my co-worker I really don’t need to have high brow rules in what does and doesn’t make me laugh. The Hangover made me laugh pretty hard.
Tell Your Friends
Bogworld exists and succeeds because of you. Please continue to share the toons you like here with your friends and encourage them to share them with their friends. Lets make Bogworld something really special on the interweb.
Speaking of which, a really good friend of mine has a really amazing song on iTunes right now. You can get a taste of his work here...
www.alemusicmn.com
Alejandro is an amazing recording artists and a really good friend of mine. He’s finally getting his big break. His music is becoming available on the biggest internet music sources out there. iTunes! His first song, Too Bad, is amazing. Please check it out and tell all your friends to check it out too. Lets do a little famous Bogworld networking. Lets see if we cannot help a really talented guy get noticed by the rest of the world one friend at a time!