Cover Band

I am about to pay 20 dollars for two tickets to see a cover band. According to the website of the band (not going to say who as its irrelevant to the question) they are a "tribute band." I thought about what the difference is. Then I remembered the Movie "Rock Star" staring Mark Wahlberg.

In the movie his hometown "tribute band" kicks him out because he wants to just play covers and they want to play original material. The movie goes on to show plenty of glam band sex, drugs and rock and roll sort of hoopla. Its worth a rental.

Anyway, is the difference between a cover band and a tribute band pretty simple: cover bands just plays other bands music and a tribute band plays music from just one other band? Or does the tribute band have something more genuine and altruistic? What does the original band think of the other bands basically impersonating them and reaping the rewards? Do they make their own CDs and sell them for profit? In general, you would not have this sort of thing in the art world, where it would be considered fraudulent or in books. I could not imagine a book about a CIA analyst named Jack Ryan, set in DC but not written by Tom Clancy.

My question is this: Is this worth my 20 bucks? I'll probably have a good time and be entertained. Is that enough?

What You Ate for Lunch, and Did You Like It?

Has it come down to this? About 25% of all the Facebook posts I read now are about what people are eating. Then they say if they liked it or not. Then about five to ten comments which range from, "mmm wish I was there, good job with the flank steak fajitas!", to "I remember when I ate at that place with my husband on our anniversary. Have a great time and make sure you tip the blonde waitress well, that is my cousin's babysitter."

I do understand that without food, we would die. I also understand that people eat generally three times a day so there is much thought put into stuffing our faces with caloric content. But do we all need to hear about it? Do we need to tweet about it? What is so enthralling about food that it cannot wait until you see your co-workers the next day or your best friends? Does everyone have to text, crackberry or log-on to update in real time what you are eating.

Michael Jackson Blog

A friend of mine told me in 2002, "The only way he can salvage his legacy now, is by dying a tragic death." My friend was speaking about the allegations of child abuse and the related trial. It seems prophetic now.

After a weekend to think about it. There is really only one way to categorize Michael Jackson: The music or the man. Its really hard to take the music seriously if you take the man seriously. Why would someone purposefully buy music from someone as crazy and troubled as Michael? You cannot do it.

So I thought about his music. I thought about "PYT", "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", "Wanna Rock with You", "Billie Jean", "Beat it" and "ABC." I never turn the radio to another station when those songs are on. His songs are fantastic, his musicality is great and he was a phenomenal dancer. I vividly remember my family buying "Thriller" and listening to it on our record player. My older brother was more of a rock fan but even he seemed to like it. During my senior year in high school my class did a "Remember the Time" themed Fantastiks skit that was awesome.



But as a man, he was nuts. I cannot overlook the different allegations of child abuse. The first of which he paid off the family and the second he was acquitted in court. He had a primetime interview where he said he liked to have milk and cookies in bed with a small child (not his). There was also the occurrence where he held his baby over a rail in a European hotel room from several stories above ground. If dropped, the child most certainly would have died. Michael has also had so many surgical procedures done on his face that he does not even look like a real person anymore, just a faint ghost with a messed up nose. And there are so many other crazy strange stories about Michael Jackson that I cannot even recount them all.

Now the question for people around the world is this: Will he be remembered as perhaps the best pop music artist ever or the crazy man, who had a side career as a good singer too.

Kidnapping Sean Goldman

If you have not heard the story of how Sean Goldman was kidnapped from his Father David Goldman, you have really missed some of the worst news anyone could possibly hear. Why am I bringing it up then? Because I am a dad and it makes me terribly mad and because it appears that its coming to a head and may be resolved sometime soon.

In a nutshell, an American man, David Goldman, married a Brazilian lady and and they had a child in New Jersey, Sean Goldman. She takes the kid to Brazil for vacation, never comes back, divorces David (against his will in Brazil), marries a new guy, and then she dies (during the birth of a new child).

So the child should rightfully go back to the birth father in New Jersey right? Well I guess the new Brazilian husband is well-connected (his dad is a judge) and knows how to work the system. But according to an international treaty from the Hague, in which Brazil is a signatory, the kid belongs with the birth dad, David Goldman since the kidnapper has no relation to Sean at all. So the kid is being held hostage in Brazil for like four years now. This is nuts.



Recently the Brazilian kidnapper when on TV and said that Sean Goldman "wants to stay in Brazil." At first I thought well Sean probably does, since he is like eight years old and has all his friends and activities there.

But then after a long drive I thought more rationally and thought that whatever the kid wants is pretty irrelevant. For example when I take my kids to Chuck E .Cheese, they want to stay there forever too. They want to eat pizza and ice cream for dinner every night. They want lots of things. But its the right of the parent, David Goldman, not this other dude, to decide what is right for his kidnapped son.

I encourage everyone to contact their congressman and have them support HR2702 to help bring Sean Goldman home to his real dad, David Goldman.