the man in the mirror(or record player)

i used to own this exact record player circa 1986. i had a total crush on MJ and wanted to give him a book of mormon so that he could join the church and we could get married and live happily ever after. i also had a roommate in college who had the same dream, but only with justin timberlake and the rest of nsync. she was 20. i was 6.

i am currently wishing that i had held onto this gem of nostalgia. this beauty was fetching $270 before the king of pop became the king of pop, emeritus. the worth now could probably pay for any minor plastic surgery procedure i would like to get in the near future. a fitting tribute, right?

but on a serious note, does it mean that you are officially old when your favorite pop star of your youth dies? last night at my volleyball game, we dedicated our perfomance to the memory of michael jackson. at first we were BAD, as in good(it was a thriller, almost dangerous) and came thisclose to winning our first game. the second game we were still pretty good, but not like the first game. by the final game we were tired and not feeling very excited. we did our best to play well, but our age was showing. and then we beat it and went home to our families. it was like the king of pop was right there all along.

a final note, how many michael jackson RIP tatoos do you anticipate seeing in the coming weeks, even considering his more recent checkered HIStory?

reality tv=marriage kiss of death

since i spend a good amount of time each day frequenting various check out lines, i happen to read a ton of tabloid headlines. sometimes they are hilarious. sometimes they are completely inane. sometimes they are just sickening. the headlines and tabloid coverage that has been bothering me the most involve jon and kate + 8. the demise of any marriage is heart-wrenching enough, but having it played out on every magazine cover is enough to make a tabloid-loving. celebrity-lifestyle-hardened-cynic like me look for other hobbies. not to mention the fact that there are EIGHT innocent children involved. my advice for jon and kate is to run for the hills. just walk away from this mess and restart your family. eschew any dreams of further limelight and get back to real life. quit the show, quit the book tours, quit the drama and go back to raising a family and falling in love again. people don't just wake up one morning and fall out of love. it is a process. it is also a very hard and very long term process to keep a marriage together. jon and kate, go back to being regular employed people. it will be hard to not have tons of cash on hand from having millions of people invade your home and watch you, but i think you can do it. i know of several families with 8+ children that have been successful, happy and financially viable. money certainly doesn't buy happiness. this lesson has been played out time and time again.

reality show family casualties-

carmen electra and dave navarro- til death do us part: carmen+dave divorced after 3 years of marriage

hulk and linda hogan family-hogan knows best divorced after 20+ years of marriage

jessica simpson and nick lachey- newlyweds: nick and jessica divorced after 3 years of marriage

travis barker and shanna moakler- meet the barkers divorced after 1 year of marriage, then reunited and then broken up again, then reunited, then broken up...you get the picture.

the osbournes-the osbournes by some miracle they are still married, however, two of their children had stints in rehab before they were 18.

brett michaels-rock of love will brett ever find true love?

flavor flav- flavor of love are there really women out there this desperate?

adrianne curry and christopher knight- my fair brady i just don't have much to say about this one. come on peter brady, let's grow up.


the only people who will probably come out of their reality tv show with their marriage intact are the duggars. they seem to be the only reality family who hasn't changed who they are because of their tv fame. these people are the real deal holyfield. yes, they seem a touch narrow, but i do not for one second doubt their family's love and sincerity toward one another. my only concern is from the viewership: do people actually admire and enjoy the show or are the watching just because they think they are a bunch of religious fanatic yokels?
the duggars- 17 kids and counting

thoughts?