tats, mike, and a little clarity

i personally love tattoos. i like them ON me as well as seeing other people's artistic ventures. i got yet another a month or so ago and will be going again in the next few days. my wife actually has waaaaay more than i do and theres also more to come on her. i like it when women can pull off the tats they have. in my opinion, some girls can pull off 'excessive' tats and some simply cannot. i dont know what it is about the girl that she HAS to have to pull it off well but i know it when i see it. my kids will be tatted up by the time they're legally able to do it. they always draw them on themselves and pretend to put em on my wife and i. pretty cool in my opinion. anyway, i was thumbing through one of the 8 quazillion tattoo magazines and i saw a woman with a paris hilton on her foot. yes it pains me to mention it folks, but yes i said paris hilton. not a tat of the hilton hotel in paris where she traded nuptials with her man. nope, it was "that" paris hilton. it actually got me to thinking...

ive been traveling alot and havent had the chance to post on the death of mike, aka, michael jackson. ive seen or heard alot of people talking rather negatively about how most radio stations paying tribute to him by playing his songs pretty much all day. i heard one guy say, 'oh lets honor a child molester'. though i understand where these people are coming from, i still have to object to the negativity.

(soooo...and to now somehow try and make sense of my ramblings and how tats, miss hilton, and mike have a common bond in my brain...)

without a doubt, celebrities or people we idolize (sometimes negatively) play a huge role in our lives. i guess what i had to reconcile mentally was how i could feel such a loss over, not only someone ive never met, but someone with such a...checkered or, at least, questionable past. now i wasnt like in the dumps and depressed all day or anything, but i did feel a sense of loss and was in disbelief. for me, music is so incredibly nostalgic and as a result, the artists somehow become part of my life. i was talking with dawn today and we both were talking about how we could remember where we were when he would have a new video released on tv, or painfully trying to mimic the entire dance sequence of thriller. i distinctly remember my mom damn near driving of the road when i told her that i thought he was saying 'f@ck it' in 'beat it' when he was actually saying 'funky'. there are just so many instances where the nostalgia runs so deep, that i can still, after all these years, remember how i felt at that moment. i can remember the joy and laughter that echoed through my house as my brother and i laughed at each other stumbling over our feet. all because of a simple song or video. after watching all the tributes on tv, i couldnt help thinking, 'wow, i cant believe he's really gone.' when i first heard the news, via text message from a friend, his death hadnt been confirmed yet and i kept thinking, no, hoping, he would pull through and that the media had somehow jumped the gun. unfortunately as we all know, he didnt make it. i for one am saddened regardless of how much he physically morphed into almost a different person and yes even with the allegations laid against him.