Everybody on the planet knows that Michael Jackson died this past summer and everybody knows that he was in the middle of rehearsing for a 50 date stint in London. That tour was entitled This Is It and as the name implies, was to be the final live performances of his career. After his death, Jackson’s representatives revealed that everything, including dress rehearsals, had been filmed by the production company putting the show on. They decided to make a film as a final gesture to fans (and, no doubt, to recoup millions of dollars lost on the production itself) so everybody could see what the King of Pop had planned for his last act. I scored some tickets to the preview screening in Lincoln tonight and just got back from seeing the flick. I know you are all curious about the big question: does he look like he’s about to fall over and die, or is he the vibrant performer we all remember? Read on…

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Whoever it was that said ‘Lightning doesn’t strike twice’ obviously doesn’t live on The Sunset Strip.

Lately, The Viper Room has become a hotbed of guitar action! A couple weeks ago, Steve Stevens stopped by to jam with Ginger Wildheart and Billy Morrison on some “Rebel Yell”. A couple nights later Slash joined former Guns ‘N Roses drummer Steven Adler for “It’s So Easy” and “Mama Kin”. (Read About It Here.) And then last Saturday as the dust of the Sunset Strip Music Festival was just beginning to settle, Rock and Roll legend Ace Frehley took the Viper stage by storm with his show of KISS Classics, New Fan Favorites from ANOMALY and his signature model Les Pauls on Fire! And as an added bonus the spaceman even closed his set with 1974’s “Cold Gin” featuring Slash once again as special guest! Really, where else are you going to see a duo THAT HUGE in such an intimate setting. To say that we, as an audience felt privileged would be a gross understatement.

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Ted Kennedy was badass. If only every elected Democrat would follow his lead.

You’ll be missed, Senator Kennedy.

Dude, I was literally to the left of the dude wearing the Nebraska hat. In fact, I was facing this chick’s direction as this argument went down. Photo via the Journal Star.

I didn’t even know about the health care rally until my girlfriend mentioned it about thirty minutes before it started. Way to go Obama. Utilize your e-mail list a bit better. Anyway, it was a muggy day and I decided to walk down wearing my They Live tee which garnered a bunch of weird facial reactions from the hippy leftists who weren’t sure whether or not I was with the protesters to said protesters who kept taking pictures of my shirt. Seriously. One dude even got out his camcorder and filmed it. Not me, just the tee. I’m sure this image will be popping up on conservative blogs all over the country with “OBEY” replaced with “OBAMA”. Come to think of it, that’s a pretty clever use…

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Stop panicking.

I’m not exactly sure how I feel about Michael Mann’s Public Enemies. I mean, I think I know, but then suddenly I’ll feel like I don’t. Is it possible to dislike a movie, yet at the same time leave the theater feeling as though you did enjoy the hell out of it? Does that make any sense? I’ll try to work that out in my review but for context, I’m a huge fan of Michael Mann. I adore Thief and Manhunter. I slurp the greatness of Heat. I will argue vehemently that Collateral is one of the 10 best films of the decade. The Insider, Ali, and The Keep are all fantastic. I love Mann’s attention to process, procedure, and work and how he will show the most minute detail of a robbery or gunfight during the tensest of moments. I love how he can capture cities in ways we’ve never seen with his camera and how his villains are tragically flawed, yet human. In fact, pretty much the only thing I don’t like about Mann is Miami Vice. That movie was disgustingly bad. But hey, every great director is entitled to a bomb every now and then (he should also be admonished for producing the tripe known as Hancock). I can forgive Mann for Miami Vice. After all, the followup film promised Johnny Depp and Christian Bale shooting at each other with Tommy Guns. It’s got to be good, right?

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Sarah Palin is gold for Democrats. Strike that…she’s platinum. She is the absolute most valuable asset the Democrats have against Republicans. She’s worth far more to us than Rush or Dick or Steele or Newt. In fact, the only Republican on earth who is worth more is George Bush, but he’s apparently gone into witness protection since the election. Every time Sarah Palin opens her mouth, either something stupid comes out or something hilarious ensues. Platinum.

When John McCain picked this unqualified idiot for vice president he virtually conceded the presidency to Barack Obama. I will be eternally grateful to John McCain for that. Conservatives love Sarah Palin. Infatuated is probably a better term. So much so that they believe this weird mythology about her. That she is a fiscal champion (even though as mayor of Wasilla she left the town 20 million dollars in debt). That she fights government waste (she actively supported the “Bridge to Nowhere”, then flip-flopped, then took the government money anyway). That she is the very definition of ethics (she was found guilty of abuse of power in the Troopergate scandal by a Republican dominated committee). She’s been a complete fraud from the beginning and even Alaskans have taken notice as her approval rating has plummeted 30 points in the past few months. But now the freakshow has gotten even better

Palin has quit.

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Rush Limbaugh tried to capitalize on the death of Michael Jackson by making the ridiculous statement that Michael Jackson’s success was directly related to the success of Ronald Reagan. He even went so far as to say that he “languished” under Bush 41 and Clinton and “died under Obama”. Now the stupidity of a statement like that could be dissected every which way, but I would argue strongly that Michael Jackson was never not a huge success story. And his success certainly had nothing to do with a particular president.

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My pic of the Marquee of The Viper Room (via Twitter taken on my iPhone) was reposted on the LA Times’ entertainment blog: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/06/sunset-strip-venues-pay-tribute-to-michael-jackson.html

Another Republican sex scandal, right on the heels of Senator John Ensign.

See, the difference between Republicans and Democrats is that, when you make your party the “party of God”, then your fall from grace will always be worse than if Eliot Spitzer is found banging hookers. That’s the problem with conservatives. They’ve spent so much time labeling liberals as the “party of heathens” that when a Democrat starts bangin chicks…well it’s just not a big deal because they are “expected” to act in that way. Y’know, that “badge of honor” that the holier than thou Limbaughs of the world like to toss around. Conservatives have made a concerted effort for decades to make Democrats and liberals the party of “anti” family values. Now you’ll start hearing them whine about the “double-standard” and that the big bad media is picking on them and not treating them the same as a Democrat in the same situation. It drives them nuts. But that’s the bed they’ve chosen to get laid in. Deal with it, whiners. Like when Bill Clinton left office with a higher approval rating than Ronald Reagan even after they spit all their fire and brimstone at Slick Willy and his Elephantine Harem. Like I said, it drives conservatives nuts.

Just saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen today. It’s one of the worst pieces of crap I’ve ever seen. I’ll post a full review on AvantTrash tomorrow.

Oh, and lots of Iranians on O Street here in Lincoln holding up green signs and chanting “Mousavi” and “Free Iran”.

By now, everyone has learned that Barack Obama studied under Mr. Miyagi and that he brutally murdered Dr. Andre Delambre (no comment as of yet from Vincent Price’s corpse). God damn, what they say about Chicago politicians being brutal ain’t no lie. Considering the fact that Colbert has been having a nightly segment dedicated to parodying the incident entitled “Murder in the White House” (Jeff Goldblum was on the other night to vomit and then suck up his 2 cents) there’s not much more I can add comedy wise to the situation. However, the best thing about Ninjabama’s actions was PETA getting up in arms about it.

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There is a fire blazing a couple blocks away at Hammond and Phyllis in WeHo. It’s next to an elementary school and an apartment complex which will both probably be smoke damaged. Neighbors claimed the house was covered in overgrown weeds and bushes and it was a “creepy” house. The land itself is probably worth a bucket of cash!

No word on whether anyone was inside. Its raining ash on Sunset and San Vicente right now.

***Edit via an email received from the editor at LAist:***

from the wires… “Firefighters are searching for a possible victim inside a burning
home at 940 Hammond St. in West Hollywood, says Inspector Frank Garrido of the
Los Angeles County Firefighters.”

I’m a firm believer that Twitter is the dumbest shit ever.  I find its very existence to be patently absurd. I’m not one of the 10% of  12 year old girls and my “going on 30″ friends who feel the need to be a Twitter hipster, but hey, that’s just me. I’m an anti-social bastard who hates people and would like the ability to say that in more than “140 characters”. But, whatever makes them feel good about themselves, I guess.

Whether or not Twitter is relevant isn’t really the issue. Recently, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley posted this on his twitter page:

“Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us”time to deliver” on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND.”

and then this:

“Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said ‘time to delivr on healthcare’ When you are a “hammer” u think evrything is NAIL I’m no NAIL”

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The disaster that may have saved D-Day.

Nazis suck. Time to fire up Wolfenstein.

p.s. Carpool today.