Michael Jackson 1958 - 2009

There are plenty of important things to worry about in the world right now. North Korea is making aggressive militaristic threats against the United States. In Iran, the misguided authorities in power are shooting innocent people in the streets. The United States economy is still melting down and the "stimulus" concept of the federal government appears to be nothing more than wishful thinking. However.....ALL of these things will be ignored for a few days due to the death of pop music superstar Michael Jackson. No offense to the families of Ed McMahon or Farrah Fawcett, because I'm sure they were nice people, but their deaths will go largely unnoticed this week... simply because they were NOT Michael Jackson.

It is easy for those of us who live here in Los Angeles to get a little casual about meeting celebrities. My brother met Marlon Brando in a camera shop. I chatted with Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton for a few minutes at Rocket Video one time. Neither meeting caused a great deal of excitement. I mention this because Michael Jackson still had the power to drive normal people into a frenzy over seeing him. I last saw Michael Jackson a few weeks ago on Rodeo Drive. He was shopping in a store and left in a blue SUV. People were sprinting at high speeds towards his vehicle and screaming hysterically. They were running from several blocks away to get to Rodeo... that is how big Michael still was. They were running for a simple reason. In the 1980's, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" became the best selling record album of all time, and along with accomplishing that feat, Michael Jackson became the biggest star in the world.

That is not something that goes away... ever. Ask Mickey Rooney. You can occasionally see him at the Farmers Market, where he is always happy to tell people that he was the "biggest star in the world"...and he was...back in 1939-41. He is still alive and telling people about it over 65 years later. It is a rarified status that only a few people in the world will ever achieve. Kobe Bryant could win 10 NBA titles in a row, and he still wouldn't be anywhere close to Michael Jackson. Only a few people in the history of the world have ever known what it was like to be Michael Jackson, and even then, they had to do some guessing. Elvis Presley knew what it was like to be Michael Jackson. The Beatles knew what it was like to be Michael Jackson. But none of them knew what it was like to sign a record contract with Motown records when they were only 10 years old.

I had been somewhat of a fan of his after seeing him do his "moonwalk" on a Motown TV special in 1983. It was one of those moments you never forget. People still talk about it to this day. In 1992 I was living in London, England and heard that Michael Jackson was performing at Wembley Stadium. On a whim, I decided to go and see if I could get in, even though I did not have a ticket. Some fast talking and quick bargaining with some exiting reporters ended up with me wearing their press passes and making my way to the front row of the show. The show was amazing and Jackson left the crowd overjoyed. I thought about that show when I heard that he had died today. I felt very bad thinking that other people would never get to experience that again.

This video shows Michael at the peak of his skills, performing at the Rose Bowl during the halftime show of Super Bowl 27. Hundreds of millions of people around the globe watched his performance that day. There is a good chance that you were one of them.

Fox 11 - Good Day L.A.

My appearance on Fox 11's "Good Day L.A." It was fun.

Krekorian wants to bankrupt L.A.

Attention CD 2 voters! Paul Krekorian is headed your way, and he's bringing a whole lot of financial trouble along with him from Sacramento. It is bad enough that this Burbank resident has decided to seek the Los Angeles City Council position in Council District 2. The fact that he intends to bring his Sacramento-style mentality of irresponsibility and his overspending habits to L.A. is frightening. We already have Mayor Villaraigosa and a majority of the City Council Members, who are hard at work destroying this City. Adding Assemblyman Paul Krekorian to the mix would just be overkill. However, he would fit in very well downtown....

Wild-eyed liberalism. Phony altruism. Typical Statist mentality of entitlement and control. Fantasy world accounting.

Yeah, he would a perfect club member down at City Hall.

Listen to him say things like "across-the-board budget cuts are unfair, they are unwise.." (shudder)

Yeah, it is a much better idea to raise taxes and fees on a struggling public in the middle of a bad economy.

(Maybe they can raise the parking meters to $5 an hour!)

Much like the Chris Essel video below, hearing statements like this makes me ill.

Chris Essel at S.O.H.A.

Chris Essel says she "wants to give back to the community" and would "love to get to know each and every one of you". These type of statements of false altruism by political candidates tend to make me nauseous.

My comment on Ron Kaye's website/blog

Previewing your Comment

By Phil Jennerjahn on June 14, 2009 2:58 PM

I am opposed to this effort. The people who are proposing it fail to see the forest for the trees. The salary of the City Council members is irrelevant. Even if they made 200K per year, the total of their 15 salaries combined would only be 3 Million/year.

The Council makes financial decisions that affect BILLIONS of dollars of LA's budgetary process. Their salaries are nothing compared to their financial power to make things happen...or not happen.

I wouldn't care if they made 300K per year....as long as they made Conservative decisions and eliminated higher costs and fees. If they would eliminate government departments and useless regulations.... and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse... they would deserve even more than they make now.

Their salary level is not the problem.
Their actions, votes, and ideologies are the true problem.

The Race for CD 2

Here is a partial list of the players who might be motivated to run for the open Los Angeles City Council seat left vacant by Council Member Wendy Gruel. Her victory in the March 3rd election awarded her the new position of City Controller. The results of the election produced a wild scramble amongst interested parties for the newly-vacant job in the 2nd. One of the immediate assumptions was that well-respected politician Laura Chick would step in and take the job, but, aware of the fact that she had already served two terms in City Council from another district, Chick felt it was not the right place for her, and surprisingly declined a run at the spot. Some of the candidates can clearly be accused of being "carpetbaggers" (i.e. they don't live in the district) and I'm sure that subject will come up in discussions during the election campaign. Some of the potential candidates can  actually be described as "already in"... and we will get to a discussion of that next... 

Joan Pelico, Deputy for the Councilman Jack Weiss. 

Tamar Galatzan, LAUSD Board Member and Prosecutor for the Van Nuys LAPD Division

Ben Neumann, current President, Studio City Neighborhood Council

Kenny Gerston, former President of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council

Cindy Montanez, Former Assemblywoman, former Mayor of City of San Fernando

David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg, Media personality, blogger, and City Hall political activist

Frank Sheftel, Candy Factory owner, Marijuana Collective operator, and community activist

Jozef Essavi, former candidate for L.A. Community College Board of Trustees

Paul Krekorian, California State Assemblyman, 43rd District

Chris Essel, former exec. Paramount Pictures, Airport Commission appointee

Many of the potential candidates are awaiting a decision by State Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, who casts a large enough shadow over the race that his presence in it would discourage many others from running. Krekorian has a tough decision to make, having himself  just been re-elected to the State Assembly in November 2008. His decision to immediately depart that position and to "carpetbag" over from Burbank/Glendale over into the Eastern San Fernando Valley would not be met with joy by many of the voters who elected him in November. In fact, it is likely his actions would burn bridges and create a large number of hostile voters who might seek his recall regardless of the outcome in the City Council race. If he decides to seek the Council seat, many would-be candidates will be discouraged from seeking the position. If he opts out, the field will probably get more crowded. However, it seems more likely than not that Krekorian will seek the seat. The higher salary and the pay-to-play opportunities of the Los Angeles City Council are usually too much for politicians to resist. There are rumors that Krekorian has already rented an apartment in CD 2 in order to be able to claim residency.

Aside from Krekorian, Chris Essel appears to be the leading candidate out of the gate, due to her large personal fortune after having been an executive at Paramount Pictures. However, Essel comes with some serious and unattractive baggage... having been appointed to the Airport Commission by none other than questionable City leader Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Joan Pelico was a member of "Team Weiss", which was left a pile of smoldering wreckage after the City Attorney race.  Pelico and Tamar Galatzan are lower level politicos who owe large debts to Mayor Villaraigosa. Galatzan, in particular, is heavily indebted to Villaraigosa. It is believed that Villaraigosa spent between 1 and 2 million dollars to get her elected to the LAUSD Board. If the Mayor pulls them aside and lets them know that Chris Essel is his preferred candidate, they will probably bow out of the race in deference to him.

Frank Sheftel, a business owner and community activist, is painting himself as the only "local boy" in the race,citing his decades-long presence in the San Fernando Valley. He acknowledges than Essavi and Essel are both probably going to be candidates in the election, but he believes that Neumann and Gerston probably won't run. Montanez would be yet another carpetbagger in the race, having served as Mayor of San Fernando and in the State Assembly for areas not covered by CD 2.

One interesting possibility would be media personality David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg,  who is rumored to be mulling the option of running for the CD 2 seat.  Saltsburg did surprisingly well in the 2009 Mayoral election, taking fourth place and pulling in over 9,000 votes. 

Saltsburg does not live in CD 2 (as far as I know) yet he may not be able to resist the temptation to be in the focus of the glaring spotlight of publicity that will follow this campaign . Saltsburg seems to take delight in derailing the devious plans of crooked politicians, and to be able to disrupt the coronation of Chris Essel by Antonio Villaraigosa may be just the type of project that he would find irresistible.

The deadline for residency has passed, so the carpetbaggers will have to have already made their  moves. Now the question is to see who files and who can obtain the petition signatures in the rather brief three week window that the City Clerks office is granting. Stay tuned for more details as the race heats up.

Tom Campbell runs for Governor of California

Brief clip from the dinner with Westside Republicans

on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.