Friday, June 26, 2009

Let's move on, please



Michael Jackson, an enormously talented and influential pop star of mixed and increasingly dubious accomplishment, has died a premature and miserable death, as anybody with half a brain thought he likely would. And so now he’s gone.

No doubt this is a terrible time for his family and friends.

The rest of us: surely we can see that his death deserves little attention. It isn’t particularly meaningful or important, now is it?

Snap out of it!
We cannot say that we are being fooled. It is not entirely inaccurate to say that we are being "informed." … The efficient mass production of pseudo-events—in all kinds of packages, in black-and-white, in technicolor, in words, and in a thousand other forms—is the work of the whole machinery of our society. It is the daily product of men of good will. … The people must be informed!
—Daniel Boorstin, 1961

Around the World, Shock and Grief Over Jackson (New York Times)
Fans lighted candles at an spontaneous gathering in Hong Kong, while in the Philippines, a dance tribute was planned for a prison in Cebu, where Byron Garcia, a security consultant, had 1,500 inmates join in a synchronized dance to the “Thriller” video.

“My heart is heavy because my idol died,” he said.

Local Higher Ed News

UCI budget cut rises again--to 70 million (OC Reg)
UC Irvine said today that it may have to cut as much as $70 million to help the state balance its budget, a figure that might lead to fewer classes, deeper lay-offs and a consolidation of some programs. ¶ The news comes less than a month after UCI said that it would have to reduce spending by $40 million to help the state. That figure rose to $55 million, then to $70 million….

Cal State Fullerton’s “Mother Theresa” dies at age 84 (OC Reg)
“Diseases don’t recognize borders or look for citizenship papers,” medical anthropologist Corinne Shear Wood once told students at Cal State Fullerton. Neither did Wood, whose quest to help the disadvantaged took her around the world, on journeys where she did everything from fighting leprosy in Pakistan to exploring traditional Maori medicine in New Zealand….

Teens flock to Saddleback College jazz camp (OC Reg)
Teenage musicians from throughout the county traveled to Saddleback College this week for a chance to learn from professional jazz players. ¶ The pros, most of them adjunct faculty members, are teaching 41 students everything from basic music theory to advanced improvisation….

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...