I watched Al Franken get sworn in as a newly minted U.S. Senator from Minnesota by Vice-President Joe Biden. He was accompanied by Walter Mondale and Amy Klobuchar. After he was sworn in, the Senate stood and applauded for a good ten minutes. Senators as diverse as Sam Brownback and Barbara Boxer came up to Franken and offered him a warm embrace. Bernie Sanders gave him a bear-hug and might have even lifted him off the ground. Franken was reminded to sign something at the desk, which he did. All of this was carried on CSPAN2. You had to watch it there because CNN, at least, was covering Michael Jackson’s memorial procession.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
And that is surprising because…….???
I have found my life is infinitely more enjoyable since I divorced myself from television news, punditry and commentary and, of course, infotainment. Though it could be argued that everything on television is infotainment.
Our entire culture could best be described as a myopically diseased entity interested in only the most superficial and vacuous details in our lives. And nothing feeds the hunger of that creature more than good old American television.
No one does meaningless bullshit better than the good old U.S. of A.
this gives me an opportunity to tell my only michael jackson story.
i was about 13 and just getting into the dead kennedys and other hardcore punk bands. I went with my sister to visit my grandmother in Long Island, and guess what she had for me?
a copy of “Thriller”, an album i despised by a performer i LOATHED. To me, at that time, michael jackson represented everything WRONG with music. Stupid lyrics that didn’t have anything to do with anything; fake drums; no loud guitars; that stupid outfit he always wore. God almighty i hated him.
But i loved my granma more than i hated MJ, and as she handed me the album saying “I hear all the kids these days are listening to this,” i put on my best fake smile, and said “thanks so MUCH! All my friends have this and now I do too!” I put on side A and gave the horrible thing a spin. Beat iiiiiit! Beat iiiiit! no one wants to be defeated!
After the visit, we went home and I asked my sister if she wanted a practically new Michael Jackson album. She reluctantly said yes. IIRC, that was the last time it was played in our house.
she should have given you Off the Wall, which is a much better album. But I’m not sure if you’ve ever developed a taste for disco, even when well done.
i have no problem with disco and funk at all actually. I’ m a big fan of the parliament/funkadelic opus, james brown, early jackson 5, stevie, ohio players, and so many more. I was a big ol’ funk fan before bluegrass and old time took over my life, and still get up for the downstroke.
but i never liked michael’s work. last week while driving to get sam, a radio station was playing entire albums back to back, so i kept it on to see what I’d been missing. I didn’t like any of it.
Just not a fan of the MJ sound, I guess.
I like funk to listen to, which is not really true about disco.
But I like disco to dance to, and Off the Wall has a few greats in that regard. Thriller? Not so much. At least, not for me.
Madonna is much more danceable.
BooMan dances?!! < gasp >
what do you define as “disco”.
the purest form is the Bee Gees. But the Jacksons, Donna Summer, some Blondie, ABBA, KC & the Sunshine Band, Gloria Gaynor.
Many one hit wonders.
You know music much better than me, but Wiki actually defines the sound.
It’s definitely distinct from funk, although some artists do both. Barry White did some disco, some funk, and some soul.
I’m not sure if there is a perfect definition. I’d argue that a lot of Madonna’s later stuff is disco, but I don’t know if it fits the pattern in time and instrumentation.
oh yeah, i like most of that stuff (even ABBA, which was the soundtrack at all the school dances in 6th and 7th grade). Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor are both awesome. Same with Sissy Houston, Alicia bridges, and bunch of 1-hit-wonders whose names i forget.
As for the Bee gees… well, i prefer their older, 60s pyschedelic-pop. like this:
New York Mining Disaster 1941
Their old stuff is so great, far superior to the disco that came later (which is also good, for what it is).
That said, MJ never appealed to me. when i drove to get sam last week, a DJ in NY wa playing MJ’s entire discography, and I deliberately kept it on to see if there were any gems i’d missed. Over the course of an hour, nothing moved me. A matter of personal taste, i guess.
I didn’t like any of it at the time, mainly because an older brother taught me that disco was the enemy of all good music.
But I remember the first time I heard Chic’s Funkytown. I was in the basement and my brother was listening to the radio as he labored at the workbench on some model he was making. I was immediately enchanted. It was the number one song that summer and played endlessly on the radio. Looking back, that’s when I realized that disco has a kind of magic.
Later on I realized that the Bee Gees and ABBA aren’t the enemies of good music, but the absolute prerequisites to having a properly good time.
I think Thriller was one of the first cassette tapes I ever bought. That and Born in the U.S.A. Funny when I look back on it because though I bought BIUSA and Springsteen’s Live 1975-85 albums back when cassette tapes were still king, I didn’t actually become a Springsteen concert junkie till much later
Am I just forgetting, or is this Jackson frenzy magnitudes more hysterical and pervasive than anything around the death of more pivotal musicians like John Lennon? To say nothing of other more pivotal but less hyped musicians like Ray Charles, Muddy Waters, Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Guthrie, to name a few that come immediately to mind.
It really seems like a crime the way all these self-serving “tributes” to Jackson are in fact demeaning his achievements in a cloud of shameless hype. I guess the musicians mentioned above lucked out.
Am I just forgetting, or is this Jackson frenzy magnitudes more hysterical and pervasive than anything around the death of more pivotal musicians like John Lennon? To say nothing of other more pivotal but less hyped musicians like Ray Charles, Muddy Waters, Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Guthrie, to name a few that come immediately to mind.
Pete Seeger is like 90 now. It’ll hardly make news when he dies. Yet his passing would deserve a service closer to what Jackson is getting. Then again, I gather that Seeger would despise such a circus.
Gawd. Are they still focused on Michael? Didn’t they interrupt that “circus” for endless speculation over Palin’s ba-bye? Ya know, with 24/7 to fill, you’d think they could cover more than one story at a time…
Booman,
I hope you have been paying attention, because the way this thread went tells you exactly why they are talking about Jackson, and why is is not media fail.
Michael Jackson is like a familiar scent from childhood (cigar/pipe smoke for me), a mention of his name takes people down memory lane, and people start to talk about what they were doing in the day. There is nothing wrong with the media spending time reminding us. Certainly nothing congress does will ever be such a trigger.
Mention John Kennedy and I can tell you where I was when I heard he was dead, mention LeMond to me and I can tell you where I was when he beat Fignon by eight seconds in 1989.
They are called ‘triggers’. Michael Jackson was a trigger for millions.
nalbar
Seems to me we should be able to take advantage of the media following the shiny object and pass health care.
I agree with the triggers point, but I also agree with the media fail. fhe Jackson story means something to just about everybody, but that doesn’t absolve CNN of laziness. On Sunday, CNN en espanol was covering the standoff at the Tegucigalpa airport, where the deposed President Zelaya was trying to land and where the coup leaders were trying to prevent him from doing so.
Riveting stuff. Relevant. You couldn’t write better drama if you tried. And this wasn’t fiction. Huge crowds were surrounding the airport. People were shot. And was CNN in the US devoting even a minute to cut in and mention the story? No, it was wall-to-wall Michael Jackson and Steve McNair. All TZM all the time.
I saw yesterday that the Daily Show is sending John Oliver to cover the meetings between Hillary Clinton and Zelaya in Washington DC this week. I wonder if they see an opportunity? Jason Jones got better material out of Iran than most of the TV press here. If the Daily Show were to put on a half hour of hard news either before Stewart or after Colbert, they could probably put CNN out of business. Imagine what a thumb in the eye that would be: we mock your ineptitude AND we show you how it’s done.
I know I’d watch.
Oh those funny Republicans had the Democrats the worst recession in 26 years and try to place blame on the Democrats.
The Republican’s biggest worry is that TV spot will come back and haunt them in 2010 and 2012. When health care reform passes and works. Windfall profit tax how does that hurt me?
hand
I never purchased an MJ album or tape. As for Sen. Franken most good things happen in private. With the swearing in of AL Franken a lot of people just missed health care reform getting its 60th vote.