10 Things to Think About on a Friday

What a crazy crazy week. I took Monday easy and watched a movie, but Tuesday got out to play ultimate (a bummer of a loss) and got to see the Giants finish up stomping on the A's in the Bay Bridge series in Oakland. Before the game, E and I went 3-1 on the Beirut table (beating the one team we lost to in a rematch) and afterwards, he, Dolanite and myself took a trip over to the 7 Mile, where I actually did some karaoke, which, if you know me, is rather shocking. Of course, it wasn't as awesome as seeing Dolanite get serenaded in Spanish by a guy singing Mexican love songs. Now THAT made my week! Of course, it's only Friday, and it's Friday of Pride weekend in San Francisco, no less, so this week is really just getting started. But before you go getting your groove on at Lollipop, your march on at Dolores Park or your dancing on at the Civic Center this weekend, here's 10 things to think about this Friday afternoon.

1) I have mixed feelings on this. This week I saw images for the first time of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Alice is one of my favorite childhood stories and by far my favorite of the Disney movies, so it worries me when they hand it over to Tim Burton. Don't get me wrong, the guy is out there in a mad genius type of way, but I really thought he butchered his remake of Willy Wonka, and that was live action to begin with. There's no telling what he'll do in transferring Alice in Wonderland to live action. The pictures do look stunning though.

2) Gotta love the Republican party. They make a great show of being about family values, marriage and the sanctity of life. Yet then they turn around impede gay marriage, divorce heavily, support the death penalty and run off to do very non-marriage and family value like things. Take Governor Sanford for instance. The man, while taking a 2 week break from his wife so they could strengthen their marriage, instead flies down to Argentina to have an affair. The confusing part? He spent the time they were supposed to be thinking about each other sleeping with another woman, and his wife still said, "He has earned the right of forgiveness." Regardless, I can tell you that Governor Sanford was thanking his lucky stars that his week of shame came the same week as.....

3) Because they always come in threes, we had to watch the passing of three prominent entertainment industry figures, fittingly from the television, movie and music worlds respectively. The week started off with Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson's longtime sidekick and Publishing Clearinghouse man passing away. For 30 years he played sidekick on the Tonight Show, and as part of that stint would have to move down on the couch to let the guests sit down. Well, it wasn't two days later that he did have to move down on the couch for Logan Run's star Farrah Fawcett who lost her well-documented battle with cancer. Of course, knowing that they always come in threes, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. I didn't know it would be the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, from a sudden cardiac arrest. The man who revolutionized music and dancing and brought generations together had faced hard times in recent memory, but his videos, recordings, music and dance moves will never be overshadowed by what happened at the end. While it was strange, Michael's career created memories and connections that cannot be replaced. Over 50 Million albums sold, including Thriller that contained 7 #1 hits.

4) Of course, MJ's passing brings up another interesting question...that is, what happens to the 50% share of the Beatles' song catalog that he owns? I've always been unclear on what Apple owns vs. what MJ owned, but this article does a great job of explaining the difference between owning the songs and owning the performances.

5) The not-so-good news for stars continued this week on other fronts as well. Turns out Michael Madsen, star of Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs and countless other films is flat out broke. Actually, broke is when you have no money...Madsen owes a ton of money. The best part? He makes $50,000 A MONTH and still can't get it together. You have any idea how much you could do on 50k a month?! Another confusing thing. He's been in a ton of Quentin Tarantino movies, and yet owes Tarantino $1,000,000. Aren't the directors supposed to pay you?

6) In tales from Darwinism, this lovely lass was found breastfeeding her child while drunk. You know, there's a lot of things I enjoy doing while I'm drunk, but the idea of an infant toddler biting the hell out of my nipples isn't one of them.

7) We've heard quite a bit about the martyr, Neda, from Iran who was shot during the riots protesting the presidential election. But what did you really know about her?

8) Speaking of that election, news today shows that a cleric from Iran wants to execute the leaders of the protests to set an example. So much for fair elections. But I'm very glad to see Obama speaking out on it.

9) As if one Jar Jar Binks wasn't enough, now we apparently have Transformers from Michael Bay's new piece of shit movie who are racially stereotyped. Good show.

10) And finally, a quote I thought was spectacular from Michael Jackson that fits the theme of Pride weekend: "If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with."

Cheers and take care.