#107 - celebrity wheel of death.

wow. what a week (or so) it's been! it's like stevie wonder sang to us in "we are the world"--there are people dying. stevie may be blind, but he can see the truth. every day, all over the world, people are dying, some young, some old, some expected, some not, some peaceful, some violent, some messy, some not. last week was no exception. people were up & dying pretty much round the clock BUT the shocking thing about it...a handful of these people were of the celebrity variety. starting on the 23rd, the four most talked about ones were ed mcmahon, farrah, mj & billy mays, but there were some other notable deaths:

- on the 24th, in iowa, high school football coach ed thomas was shot & killed by a former player who's alleged to have a meth problem.
- on the same day, former canadian governor general romeo leblanc, a man who apparently avoided the media to the point of being unknown, passed after living with alzheimer's.
- on the 25th, sky saxon--of the seeds, a 60's l.a. garage rock band--died at age whatever...he believed age was irrelevant.
- this tuesday, in iraq, we made some seriously symbolic history, as we pulled all american troops from its cities...& then four soldiers were killed & thirty-three iraqis were killed in a bombing.

so here's the thing about all the celebrity deaths & by "all the celebrity deaths," i mean michael jackson's death...shit, man. i work in the music industry & tend to be on facebook a bunch as part of the job, so in this web 2.0 universe, here's who broke the michael jackson story to me...former co-worker & indaba music superstar nate lew...on my facebook wall no less. twenty years from now, i'll be able to have this exact conversation with my TBD teenage shawn spawn:

spawn: dad, do you remember where you were when you heard michael jackson died?
me: yes, son...and i was on facebook at the time.
spawn: facebook? what's that? some kind of drug?
me: yes, son. yes it was.

in the past ten years (or so), the last week in june has been an unfortunate week for celebrities, both known & unknown. in '07, that ol' "in threes" thing happened as in one week, we lost the amazingly-mustachioed relief pitcher rod beck, designer liz claiborne & film critic joel seigel. in '03 the same thing happened, as buddy hackett, katherine hepburn & (barf) strom thurmond died during the last week in june. back in '99, at the end of the month, the non-webster george papadopoulos--the former greek dictator who took over in a '67 military coup--died. he's the guy whose takeover of the government eventually led to a student uprising that eventually led to twenty-four deaths & a bloody end to that uprising on november 17th, eventually leading to the creation of a greek terrorist group named after that day & eventually, one year later to the day, i was born.

#107 - celebrity wheel of death.
snack: terra exotic harvest sea salt chips
drink: tropicana pure premium calcium + vitamin d orange juice



during the week, my snacking constant was a bag of terra exotic harvest sea salt chips i'd picked up at my fave neighborhood bodega. i spied them on the fancy chip rack & was all "these things look crazy! they have kabocha chips! i don't even know what a kabocha is!" now i know...it's a japanese pumpkin, which, to answer your question, can be made into a jack-o-lantern. anyway, i was blinded by the sheer craziness of these chips & not paying attention when i brought the bag to the counter. the dude looked at the bag & asked one of the other guys working there, "these are really $5.99?" i was all "wiggidy wah?!!" the mofos cost six bones! regardless, i had no choice but to get them. i had already fallen in love.

lucky for me, they were definitely worth it.  we're looking at chips made up of a combo of carrots, blue potatoes & the aforementioned kabochas.  the carrot chips are very similar in both texture & taste to a sweet potato chip, which contrasts nicely with the crunchiness & saltiness of the blue potato chips. as for the kabocha, it's definitely interesting. some of them are smooth & good but on the brink of rubbery, but some of them had ridges, which made them a bit more appealing...& when it comes down to it, each individual chip was like eating a nickel!

since i'm trying to phase out soda and/or HFCS, i picked up a two quart thing of tropicana pure premium calcium + vitamin d orange juice as well & that thing lasted me til around the day the billy died. me buying it is sort of like a coincidental tribute to billy, as both he & tropicana are from the sunshine state & both whole-heartedly embrace the orange.  by almost always drinking the OJ instead of soda all week, i got all sorts of vitamins & fortified calcium & whatnot instead of government-subsidized, lab-manufactured ingredients acutely focused into a beverage. tropicana is a pepsi co. though, so i'm not entirely guilt free when it comes to the OJ.  speaking of OJ, the murders happened in june, but that was early in the month & entirely guilt free.

...so that's one of my goals for the summer--to drink more juice & less soda, more natural stuff & less junkity junk. i figure it'll aid in slowing down my own inevitable demise.  anyway, we'll see how well that plan's worked out come the end of the summer...btw, contrary to what you may have read on your favorite social networking platform, jeff goldblum, natalie portman, the san diego chicken & tony danza are still alive. o death!