I am not one of those people who mourns Elvis in observance of his birthday or the day he died, but to me he is the King, and not Michael Jackson, like the headline in our local paper said this morning: The King is Dead.

Mr. Troutbend clarified that Michael Jackson is called the King of Pop, and I suppose Elvis is King of Rock and Roll, but if we start having too many musical kings I am going to get confused and then nobody will be King.

I admired Michael Jackson to a degree in his younger years because I think he had talent, but then he got weird on us and we heard too much about his problems. I blame this on our society's need to know everything about anyone famous and the news media's supplying it. It's a chicken and the egg thing, though - the media created the demand by making us think we needed all that information all the time and we encourage them.

I fervently hope that people don't start pining over Michael Jackson, glorifying his memory, and seeing his ghost like they have done with Elvis.

Elvis got weird, too, but I don't recall knowing so much about it until after he died, so I don't think back when he was alive we were blitzed by all that information like nowadays.

The same applies to presidents. We didn't know all the stuff about John Kennedy until after he died, but now we're inundated with news bulletins every time Barack Obama swats a fly.

Our ability to transmit and receive information via the Internet, television, and cell phones is both a blessing and a curse. I find myself taking for granted that I will be able to use Street View in Google Maps to see anybody's house or any destination in the world. We can be in Colorado and use the Internet to see the temperature inside our house in Las Vegas. And I can send instant photos of anything at all anywhere in the world. And when I can't do one of these things, I'm disappointed.

Speaking of photos, here are a couple.

Usually peonies are fluffy flowers, but in Greenlawn Cemetery where my relatives are buried there are some single peonies like I'd never seen before.



Here are this year's hummingbirds. They look just like last year's so I'm not sure why I keep taking pictures of them but it seems like the picture I send out needs to be fresh, not some stale thing I've had for years. It would be like telling the same tired old fish story over and over, along the lines of: "You should have seen all the hummingbirds we had in 2006. We don't have that many this year, but you should have seen them in 2006."



The same goes for the cat. He has gotten bonier in his old age (14 years, 70 years if he was a human being) but he doesn't look a lot different. I could post an old picture of him, and it'd be the same as the one I took today. This actually is one I took today. Buddy the TGIF Cat was patiently waiting for some deer to walk by the window so he can be scared, but when I started cooking breakfast he turned his attention to me in case something might happen in the kitchen or someone might bring some fresh catnip in from the yard.

Comments:

I celebrated and marveled at his boundless talents, and enjoyed his music and dancing so much, while at the same time feeling incredibly sorry for him psychologically. He was a tragic wounded soul, seemingly bleeding to death, surrounded by vacuous indulgent celebrity.

Loved you photos! You have created hummingbird haven!! And the peony bush looks so lovely. I suspect it is very old single bush peony — did you know they can live with very little care for over 100 years? How cool is that!!

I thoroughly expect Michael Jackson sightings... probably starting in Las Vegas.

comment by anniel on June 26, 2009 11:54 PM ()

What a thought! I think he'd have to have some snip-snip done to get the high voice, and it might be too late for that.

reply by troutbend on June 27, 2009 4:33 AM ()

p.s. Maybe after Jr's trucking business goes in to bankruptcy, with a little (or lot) of plastic surgery, some dance lessons, and voice lessons, he can become a Michael Jackson inpersonator.

reply by anniel on June 26, 2009 11:56 PM ()

comment by looserobes on June 26, 2009 6:31 PM ()

Oh no... more migrants from Mexico!

reply by looserobes on June 29, 2009 3:53 PM ()

They sit quite a bit - we see them perched in the trees and bushes around the yard. There is always at least one male guarding the feeder from a nearby bush so he sits and waits and swoops in to chase off other birds. Aside from the guarding, this style of feeder (Wal-Mart) seems to encourage them to take their time. I expect there to be several hummingbirds around where you live in the summer. We have two or three in Las Vegas every winter and they go to higher altitudes like yours in the summer, plus there should be some migrating north from Mexico each summer to your area.

reply by troutbend on June 27, 2009 4:44 AM ()

Micheal Jackson was a talented person, as was Elvis..as was every talented individual who died before their time for reasons that will remain unclear and unexplained. We can only express our sympathy to those who are left behind to mourn their passing

Buddy looks great. Cats don't seem to show their age but dogs definitely do. We do get more information than we need about everyone and why can't politicians be more discreet or keep it in their pants? I feel very sorry for their families.

well what can I say.Everyone to their own issues.My family had grown up with him and they loved his music.He may not be king but he is still a Queen.Sorry,had to put that in.

I love your pics! And I am with ya - although I think everyone is already glorifying MJ.