Was Michael Jackson really that great?

I want to start out by saying that I feel sorrow and sadness for Michael's friends and family and especially his three children who will now grow up with only a faint memory of their father.

That being said, I am kind of stunned at the outpouring of emotion over MJ's death. I would understand it if it all happened 25 years ago, 2 years after Thriller came out. That would have been a great loss. Back then. In 1984. Because Michael Jackson was a genius and an innovator. 25 years ago.

But since then, it's been pretty much one long episode of "True Hollywood Story". Countless plastic surgeries, several child molestation lawsuits (always settled out of court - I wonder why), baby-dangling over balconies, some hate lyric scandals here and there, Saudi prince bailouts, Neverland foreclosures, planned and cancelled mega-tours and drama, drama, drama. Lots of drama.

Genius usually comes hand in hand with insanity and boy did this kid have it bad. Whacko Jacko started out young in an insane family and lots of talent. Talent became super-stardom which was way too hard to handle alone and the whole thing collapsed. And such a shame too, because some of his songs, dance moves and beats are incredible and will live on for eternity.

I didn't see the "King of Pop" die yesterday. I saw a reclusive pedophile freak die and get a lot of media coverage. Because that's what we consume as shallow human beings. Shame on us!

The "King of Pop" died a long long time ago.

RIP Michael. I hope the demons will finally leave you alone.

Iran (or: Seriously what were they thinking?)

So this blog has become an op-ed by Kajagugu lately since I don't play much poker but still have opinions. And the latest topic is... Iran. So here goes.

I am shocked that people are surprised the elections were rigged. But the only way these things resolve themselves is through civil unrest and a powerful revolt by the population. Not by blog comments and changing your twitter logo to green. Come on.

How did this regime come into power? Revolution against the corrupt Shah in whatever year it was. You can't topple a dictatorship through elections. Has history taught you nothing? Instead of wasting your campaign money, you should go hire some ex-CIA, ex-Mossad, ex-MI6 folks and bring them in to help you organize a revolt. Get some "hashasheens" to take out the top political figures. Disrupt secret military installations. Create chaos. And only then take to the streets. Maybe that will work.

Did anyone think that Khameini would preach democracy this morning during his speech? Did anyone think Ahmadinejad (is he related to Ali Nejad BTW? Burn!) would just gracefully step down or even perform a recount? Why would anyone even take the time to go vote in that country? If I lived there and had an hour to spare I would start running for the hills as fast as I could.

So here are a couple of stories about Iran/Iraq for you. We had two kids in my class in high-school who were from the region. Mehran from Tehran and Mehrdad from Baghdad. I am not kidding, those were their real names. I'm not sure how Mehran got out but I assume it was during the time the Shah's regime was overthrown. But Mehrdad was a different story. He walked by himself from Baghdad over the mountains to Turkey and eventually made his way to the coast. He was probably 13 years old. And he did it alone. Can you imagine?

Here, let me draw a map for you:



Second story. Half a life ago I used to work in a pawn shop in LA. I might have mentioned it before. The real money in a pawn shop is obviously generated from interest and fees, but some people never show up to pick up their shit so then the store can sell it. And since the loan is for about 10% of the street value of the item you can then sell it for 50% and make a 400% profit. Easy math.

Most people bring jewelery, but others bring anything they can get their hands on. From big screen TVs to cars to boats to guns to tools to musical instruments (including some pretty priceless Stradivarius violins) to art work (including an original Chagall) to well, pretty much anything that can be resold. We took almost anything. Our mantra was, if one idiot paid money for it, there's going to be another idiot who will pay money for it again.

We had a lot of electronics. And this old Iranian dude would show up every few weeks and ask to buy all the stuff that looked brand new in a box. And he would haggle me to tears in the worst English with the worst Iranian accent ever. He basically tried to get everything for free. That was his negotiation starting point. So I would start at full retail price with markup. And we would go at it for a couple of hours until he either left in a huff or he would break down and buy something.

Then one day I figured it out. He owned an electronics store and was selling my items to his client as new for full retail. What a scumbag. At least anyone buying from me knew it was not new, even if it was in a sealed original box.

Now any time I hear Ahmadinejad speaking his nasal Iranian I immediately flash back to that old dude who gave me such a hard time. God, I hated that fucker!

Go Iran!

Bruno

How awesome is this guy? I don't think I would have the balls to pull of this git'up (pun obviously intended):



This movie will be great!