First of all, I wish MJ had hung on for one more news cycle, so Farrah could have had her day in the sun. I was watching MSNBC earlier, and one of the talking heads said they had been working on a Farrah tribute, but they pushed it aside when MJ died. It was all MJ all night on my TV. Yes, we knew her death was coming, but I wish she could have had more “Remembering Farrah Fawcett” moments. They died just hours apart.

As for MJ…wow. What to say. I’m not sad, I didn’t know the guy. But I’m disappointed. Whatever you think of him, MJ was the greatest showman of the 20th century. His music, his dance, his performances…unparalleled. Yeah, the hyperbaric chamber and the pet chimp and all that, sure, crazy stuff. The nose disappearing, the skin bleaching (instead of saying “this is the face of vitiligo” and being ’spotted” he went for a uniform look), the plastic surgery, the dangling kids over balconies and making them wear masks…yes, the man was certainly bizarre. But goddamn he had some fucking talent. For years I was ashamed to admit I was a fan of Michael Jackson. When I was in high school he was at his weirdest and being accused of stuff, and I kept my mouth shut. In more recent years I have decided, you know what? Liking the music is different from liking the weirdness. Plain and simple, I like Michael Jackson’s entire body of work. His short films are fantastic. His collaborations – with Paul McCartney, everybody on We Are the World, etc – are amazing. Michael Jackson fucking rocks.

As for the child abuse stuff…I think he’s too complicated to fit the traditional pedophile mold. I don’t think that whatever he did with little boys was from the predator standpoint that most pedos come from. He wasn’t raised right. His (non) relationship with his father, his earliest years having been onstage, seeing sexuality at a young age, all of it turned into a very complex individual who couldn’t understand what was wrong. Now, that doesn’t excuse him; he was an adult and should have been responsible enough to not do whatever he did. But I think it explains it better than “ewwww pedo” does. For decades he tried to reclaim some form of childhood. The very existence of carnival rides at Neverland Ranch speak to this. Setting up big party days where he invited dozens of kids to go on the rides WITH HIM reinforces it. Something was disconnected between the “boy” Michael and the “adult” Michael. Yes, he knew better – nobody with an average IQ thinks it’s okay to molest kids – but he was coming from a different standpoint.

And even as I say all this, I wish I had more to say about Farrah. I really hope she and Ryan O’Neal got married in time. A friend says he read she didn’t regain consciousness and it never happened, but by golly, if those two decided to get married, I hope they got to. I suppose it is a blessing for him that MJ died because now he can grieve in (more) peace than he would have otherwise, since everybody’s focused on MJ. But still…wow…what a day. What a day.

So, earlier today, Brent Spiner was talking about auctioning off his 400th Tweet. Instead, he posted a Groucho Marx quote. Then:
“You can never go wrong with a good Groucho line. But, I will be auctioning the 500th. Best offer I got-$10. Not nearly enough.”

When I saw this, I posted:
@brentspiner I’ll give you $100 if you’ll tweet me and say hi…but you’ll have to give me your address to send you the money

Literally one minute later, he said:
@etoile Very generous…for an opening bid. Let me think about the parameters. I’ll let everyone know what you’re bidding on soon.

So…I think I might owe Brent Spiner $100. Ha!

Also, one friend immediately said:
@etoile You are a fucking genius.

And a moment later, another friend:
@etoile omg you win!

So that was kinda awesome.

I finally figured out which celebrity I saw in the elevator at the market in L.A. It was either Heather Graham or Marley Shelton. They look kind of similar so I’m not sure. I figure Heather Graham would have had a bodyguard with her, but then again it was in L.A. so who knows? People do weird things in L.A. But I think probably it was Marley Shelton. A minor celebrity, probably – worth a mere $15.69 on the Hollywood Stock Exchange, compared to Heather Graham’s $29.09 – but still, somebody that I’ve seen before and recognized.

So we’re house-sitting at my in-laws’ for a couple of months while they’re on vacation, and they get all the Showtime channels. Last night and tonight I have been watching The L Word, and I just have to gush about Marlee Matlin. She is hotter than all things hot…she doesn’t make my jaw drop physically (although she is beautiful) but she is just hot. And she’s playing a lesbian who smokes pot and has tattoos and…mmmmm she’s so yummy. Her “interpreter” kind of makes me squirmy by interjecting his own opinions while he’s on the job, but I don’t care. Marlee is just so fucking yummy on that show. I would love to meet her someday so I can hump her leg tell her how awesome I think she is.

I know this is going to sound funny, but I’m absolutely serious. I have spent time poring over the stables of motivational speakers that can be hired to give talks at events. I think it is so cool that if you have enough money, you can have just about anybody come and talk to you, and you can find them by going through the listings of who’s available from various management agencies. They are expensive – Donald Trump probably wants a million or more, I’d bet – but they will come if you have the cash! I noticed that Bill Nye’s fee is $20k-30k…it might be an interesting school project to do a fundraiser to bring him in to talk to a science class. And you can get Al Franken for as low as $30k, though Hilary Swank and David Spade won’t come visit for less than $50k. But seriously, how cool is it that for the right price you can meet Sir George Martin or Jon Stewart?

I’m trying to figure out the answer to the Crimcheck.com background check contest. The game reminds me a little bit of Guess Who – remember that board game with the little people you flipped down when they were eliminated? And maybe also a bit of Clue. I’m not sure if the person pictured is really the person they’re looking for, but it kind of looks like Ryan Phillipe to me, except with a piggy nose. Oh wait! I just figured it out, and the guy’s Wikipedia entry confirms that black and white shot is the person they’re looking for. I guess I will enter so I have a chance to win the HDTV, in addition to the $20 I’m getting for making this post.

Oh my god! George Takei is gay! This is so cool!

Yay Sulu!

Tonight I am attempting to convert my community site from PHP-Nuke to Invision Power Board. I tried to just use the PHPbb converter for IPB, but that didn’t work too well. I am presently converting from PHP-Nuke to PHPbb (ironically, I did the reverse quite some time ago), and from there I will try the IPB conversion. Unfortunately, PHP-Nuke uses standard dates while PHPbb uses Unix-style dates, so I am manually converting everything (with some help). Fortunately I only have about 160 users, and I’m almost done.

Also, we’ve had CBS on for a little while, because neither of us is really watching and we can’t be bothered to change it. The show Threshold is on right now, and Brent Spiner is a regular on it! I had no idea. Whee! Yes, I am a huge geek.

Added: That took me a couple of hours and I have very little to show for it. I managed to convert from PHP-Nuke to PHPbb successfully, that was fine. But then I had the same problem with the conversion to IPB, which leads me to think that I didn’t need to do the Nuke-PHPbb conversion after all. I ended up dumping the PHPbb installation altogether; I stashed the tables in my Nuke database so I haven’t lost all that work at least. I dumped the IPB installation too. Maybe I will try again later, maybe not.

Just a quick update as I ride along the NJ Turnpike with :A: behind the wheel. (It’s a quick update because I’ve already made myself carsick by readng my email on my Sidekick.) Anyway, I just wanted to say that Spamalot was great. Hank Azaria was not there, but I was mostly excited to see Tim Curry anyway. Tim Curry, sweet transvestite, live! He does seem to be showing his age though – he was a bit stiff and didn’t participate in the cavorting all over the stage that the other actors did. I’m not sure which song was my favorite, but probably it would have to be the one about the Jews. Whee!

I would never have expected this, but Riki Wilchins of GenderPAC has just demonstrated a shocking stereotype related to gender presentation. In the news release A Father’s Lesson in ‘Manhood’ Deals Deadly Blow to Toddler Ms. Wilchins was quoted as saying:

This father – like countless fathers – was dead set on raising Clint Eastwood and not Alan Alda.

That comment made my jaw hit the floor so hard I just had to write back immediately.

I am astonished at the comparison Ms. Wilchins has just made between Clint Eastwood and Alan Alda. I would think that of all people, she should understand the hurt stereotyping can do. Clint Eastwood may match the American ideal of a “real man” but that is no reason to insult Alan Alda in this way. I am a longtime fan of his and I am just shocked by this. I’m sure even he would agree that he is no Clint Eastwood or John Wayne or the Marlboro Man – but I hardly think it is fair that he should receive this treatment from the executive director of an organization built on acceptance and diversity. Ms. Wilchins would have done much better to have left names of real people out of the picture altogether.