Apparently 50 is the new 99 years old these days.

Michael Jackson goes at the big 5-0, so does Billy Mays. It’s just nor safe to be a celeb anymore. So, what have we learned from all this?

Prescrpition drugs can take you out early. Just ask Elvis, Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger and now MJ. Also, keep that cholesterol down. Newsguy Tim Russert and Billy Mays found out the hard way.

At least there’s still plenty of OxyClean left for the world.

Popularity: 41% [?]

This is video (phone quality) that I shot during the finale of Rhythm & Booms on Sunday at Warner Park, from about twenty feet away.

The fireworks guys told me that they shot more than 1000 shells during the final 100 seconds at the end of the show. Check out the National Guard howitzer canons being fired in sync with the fireworks when the camera pans to the left.

Popularity: 70% [?]

Looks like I’ve lost the opportunity, but there is one question I would like to ask the King of Pop, if here were still here today.

I could go hard core and just ask him straight up if “he ever did it.” I don’t think I’d get a straight answer because he’s dodged that question before.

My question would be; “Was it all worth it?”

You can amass fame, fortune, and enough money to fund a small country, but will all that make you happy? I’m guessing the answer is no. Michael Jackson seemed like a tormented person. His eccentricities were splattered all over front pages around the world and that type of scrutiny and spotlight can make anybody crazy.

I’m not defending how he handled himself. His reactions to the world around him were often bizarre. But if you think about it…how would you have reacted. And…if it were you in his place, what would you have done?

I think anyone in a similar, isolated situation might respond likewise.

Popularity: 38% [?]

     What to say and what NOT to say to my second grader…I simply left out everything but the musical impact Michael Jackson made on the world.  
     Sam knew something was up when I turned on the TV in addition to the radio yesterday.  I just said that a very famous musician had died and that  people around the world would be mourning his loss.  I told him about Michael as a boy in the Jackson 5 and Michael as a young man on MTV.  I told him that Michael was older than his dad and that he had a cardiac arrest and doctors couldn’t save his life but that they tried.  
     I didn’t tell him about the weirdness, the strangeness surrounding Michael Jackson.  I also didn’t mention the fact he was acquitted of crimes that lots of people still think he’s guilty of (much less what the accusations actually were).
     My son was satisfied with our talk about Michael Jackson and he went on to play with his Spiderman toys.  I kept listening to Michael Jackson’s music long into the night.

Popularity: 55% [?]

I am a fireworks junkie.   Light them off and watch ‘em go. 

I’m not sure where it started.  I can remember when I was a kid, I’d literally have a firework savings fund.  I stash away any money I could throughout the year.  Then, each summer, when we loaded up the station wagon and drove to Florida to visit Grandma, we would get to stop in Tennessee.

Tennessee, to me, seemed like the holy land because they had a plentiful supply of fireworks warehouses, which had plentiful supplies of fireworks. 

I’d blow a whole year’s savings and end up with two or three grocery bags full of goodies.  I now realize that most of those goodes are illegal in Wisconsin.  Sorry Officer.

That may be why I love Rhythm & Booms now.  Sure, its a cost and finger saving measure for a older and wiser version of myself, but man is it fun when those shells go boom.

See you at the show on Saturday.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Not just a slogan….

My belief is that we owe it to each other and to past and future generations to serve the better good. And I know that a lot of others believe that, too. I get some kind of a high every time I offer my time to help.  And I hope that somehow I’m banking some good karma,  should I ever really need it down the road.

My son, Will, and I will travel to eastern Kentucky next month paticipating in the Appalachian Service Project,  spending a week making homes drier, warmer, and safer. After a similar trip last summer,  Will said “can we do it again next year for two weeks?”

My daughter, Lucy, is spending two weeks going to “service camp,” a project of MSCR here in Madison. She came back yesterday after leading exercise classes with seniors at a retirement home saying “it was great!”

And now the First Lady is pitching service from a national perspective. Go Michelle!

Popularity: 35% [?]

     It’s easy to turn into a coach potato over the summer but I found a way for my son to, for sure, get in his active time.  He’s attending sports camps (at Keva)!  Sam loves all forms of ball games–baseball, football, basketball, kickball, tennis–you name it really.  And he also loves running games like tag, sharks and minnows, and red light/green light.  
     When I pick him up at noon, he’s a happy camper.  Who wouldn’t be after playing with friends for three hours straight?!  And then when we veg out during the heat of the afternoon, I don’t feel guilty he hasn’t had any playtime.  
     Of course, I still need to get on the treadmill but that’s a whole other story…

Popularity: 38% [?]

Rated PG-13 – 2h30
Reviewed 6.24.09

Somebody call the police, because Michael Bay is missing a plot, people I care about and anything resembling good movie making in his latest Transformers explosion-fest.

Here’s where I would try to explain what the movie was about, but this one was all over the place with at least ten subplots, which I’m not sure are connected to each other in any way. If I were to guess, this movie was simply a tool to market the toys, video games and other gizmos that will be readily available for purchase at a store near you.

It’s a fun idea to think that robots can (or soon will) be able to take on human qualities like feelings, emotions and passion, but will a robot ever be able to smell? I don’t think so, and that’s just one of the dumb things that the robots I once loved as a kid are doing this time.

Another dumb feature is the absence of who I consider to be the main character. Not Shia LaBeouf, but Optimus Prime (leader of the Autobots…the good robots) is missing for a good chunk of the film. He’s the only intriguing “person” that you might actually feel for.

Watch out for a double dose of Jar-Jar Binks. The cop-out stereotype from the Star Wars prequels shows up in the form of twin, street-talking Transformers. Are these characters supposed to be a pair of friendly, gold tooth-wearing gang bangers?

On the flipside, I think I slightly liked the sequel better than the first Transformers movie. Why? I guess I’ve grown complacent and have accepted the low quality films that Michael Bay keeps churning out.

What you will see is an orgasm of explosions, robot fights, bad dialogue and praise for the US Armed Forces. (I thought I was watching an Army recruiting commercial at one point.) Not all of that is bad, if you don’t mind completely exchanging style for substance.

Overall Rating:(Out of Four)
Date Friendly:
Good Humor:
Artistic Value:
Drama
Kid Friendly:

Date Freindly: Will the “dater? get a smooch from the “datee? for taking them to this one.

Good Laughs: A general rating for number of laughs.

Artistic Value: Includes scenery, camera work, presentation on film, ability to convey a message.

Drama: How much they poured it on and whether it was effective.

Kid Friendly: Will the kids dig it.

Popularity: 65% [?]

I went to see the Midnight show of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen at Star Cinema’s IMAX this morning.

Here’s my ten second review from on-air this morning…

1.5 buckets of popcorn.

Sorry summer movie lovers, this one didn’t do it for me.  Just like the cartoon TV series was accused of in the 1980’s, the film is more of a marketing tool for the toys.  I’ll have my full shredding on my Popcorn And A Movie page later today.

Popularity: 30% [?]

     Hot Hot Hot!  My son wants to try the “frying of the egg on the sidewalk” experiment.  You know the one–steaming hot asphalt, fresh egg hitting the pavement and scorching it to sunny side up.  All he’s heard for the last several days is how hot it’s supposed to be today.  So I imagine later this afternoon you’ll find us on a black top somewhere, cracking away.
     I also expect to whip out the slip and slide, load the water guns and apply boatloads of sunscreen.  Or maybe, just maybe, I can talk my son into a nice air-conditioned movie during the hottest part of today.  The egg can wait.

Popularity: 39% [?]