Return to The Breakfast Club

(Point of clarification: no, I am not worried about my apartment disappearing in a flood. It’s not like I’m living on a flood plain or anything. I am just amazed that every local network last night decided to preempt the prime time schedule to tell me that it was raining eighty miles to the west of me. Sure there were some funnel clouds forming but I just don’t see the need for every channel to tell me in great detail what is happening. In New Orleans it probably is more like last call at a bar. “The hurricane is going to hit us in five minutes. You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.” I just like that style a little more.)

Struggling for a topic right now. Is it me or does the world just seem to be at a standstill right now? I mean, is there any big pressing water cooler story that is on everyone’s lips? I just don’t know of any. The Michael Jackson jury is still deliberating. They’ve been going for five days so my money is on a hung jury right now. I know they had a number of charges to deliberate on but the longer this goes the more it looks like it is going to be a deadlocked jury.

The interesting thing is how or why are we still considering Michael Jackson famous. He’s crossed into the Paris Hilton territory of being famous more for being famous and outrageous than for anything he has accomplished. Seriously, when was the last time you bought a Michael Jackson album? Or even listened to one? Admittedly, Thriller was a cool album in its day and Bad had its moments but in the last decade has he done anything other than be weird? None of us have any vested interest in this story, the vast public isn’t going to cheer or wail at the reading of the verdict. It’s like we’re all watching a movie that we don’t really like but since we paid for our ticket we might as well hang out and see the ending and that’s sad, really.

Oh, and talking about lost fame, I should really touch on The Breakfast Club reunion at the MTV Movie Awards. Yeah, it is surprising that of all the people in that movie Anthony Michael Hall is the one who is still getting regular work (and doing a pretty good job at it). Molly Ringwald gets a sitcom deal once every five years but other than a decent performance in The Stand and a cool cameo in Not Another Teen Movie really hasn’t been on the pop culture radar. Ally Sheedy went insane, wrote some poetry, made a really good indie film that I can’t recall right now, and has disappeared once again. Emilio Estevez is never going to be better than he was in Repo Man and has probably given up even attempting to match that moment. (Is Repo Man on DVD? I have to pick up that movie. I have a ton of memories tied to it.) And Judd Nelson is, what, working dinner theater in Florida right now? Guess this shows how difficult it is to have a long career in the movie biz.

That’s it for tonight. Have a good weekend everyone. Listen to some music, eat some good food and enjoy life. I know that’s what I’m going to try to do.