(Note: this entry appears on all the Tim Girton blogs)

It’s taken me this long to blog about the death of Michael Jackson because I wanted to gather my thoughts before I went off half-cocked and unbalanced.

From the top, I was a fan of his music. I grew up with it. While a lot of kids wanted to be Michael, I worried less about the singing and performing and more about the hair. There was an imaginary race in which the little kid with the big voice was trying to grow his afro larger than mine. Who won? That didn’t really matter, but it was the beginning of the Jackson Effect on my youth.

At the time when he wanted to break away from his family and establish his own identity, the natural rebellion was building in me. Neither of us were as dramatic as some, but we wanted to be individuals. There were stumbling blocks. After the love song to the rat (”Ben”) there wasn’t much success for Mike. My own bits of individuality caved to peer and family pressure and I conformed to the idea that the black kid couldn’t be the smart kid.

In my late teens and Michael’s twenties, “Off the Wall” and “Thriller” caught the public’s attention in a huge way. That’s where we diverged. I was still the shy kid still afraid to express myself because it wasn’t cool. I remained a fan of the music, but I started to gravitate toward Prince as the icon that would be the individual that I couldn’t bring myself to be.

Michael was still there, though. I respected the fact that he broke MTV’s barrier against black music, with Prince closely following. As I started exploring me, Michael was going into hyperbole, purchasing Neverland Ranch and buying a zoo to fill it. The plastic surgeries got to the point of self parody which showed me there was a limit to self indulgence.

I started on the journey that I continue on now. Back in the day, I had friends that argued that Michael was better than Prince or that Prince dominated Michael, but I wonder what would have happened if Michael’s idea of a Prince duet had actually come to fruition. That was the genesis of the song “Bad” but Prince balked.
Having said all that, I am not blind to the dark side. The stories continue to come out about Michael’s foibles, financial issues and the even darker charges of pedophilia. There seemed to be no one there to check him or even check on him. His will has surfaced in which father Joe Jackson gets absolutely nothing because of the child abuse he subjected Michael to.

My spirit misses the art and wonders if someone could have stopped some of the bad parts of his life, particularly if the father wouldn’t. I have been blessed to have embarked on a earthly and spiritual journey that will keep me from moving on any dark thoughts and actions like that.

I wish Michael well on his next journey. Perhaps that life will be better than this.

Fare well and I’ll see you when I get there.

Got a new photoblog from the Keith Sweat concert during the Kentucky Derby Festival. He put on the usual good show and had the women swooning. We were all in the party mode, of course, and Sweat delivered the goods. From my experience at these things, this could have been the biggest crowd ever for a “chow wagon” type of event.

The rest of the photos are below.

The proud papa in me is bursting free in celebration of my daughter’s graudation. Her hard work is paying off for her with her scholarships and the fact that she earned two diplomas today. Her regular high school one and a Commonwealth Diploma. Her honors are many and won’t list them so I don’t look like I’m bragging too hard. Just suffice it to say that I am grateful for the woman that she has become. I love you, Pie.

Here’s more pictures from her senior sessions as well as another shot of her diplomas.

And yeah, I was that dad. You know, the one that had to have some video. It’s noisy because I was so far back and had to use the digital zoom, but here she is walking that walk.

This photo gallery is actually the test of a theory. When I started teaching myself about photography, I worried about gear and did I have the right stuff. But I read somewhere that it didn’t really matter the gear, it’s the photographer that makes the picture.

There is an abundance of wonderful gear out there and I have some of it, but I took these shots with my new cell phone. It forced me to pay attention to composition and lighting and all the things photographers are supposed to. So my son got a day in the park and I got some shots to blog about.

Meanwhile, my foodie career with Ville Voice Eats is continuing in full swing. Here are some of the links. If you have opinions, positive or negative, I’d love to hear them.

• Learning About Trees, Wine and Cheese
• Lunching Al Fresco Downtown
• FDA Chides Cheerios
• Nothing Like A Good Inspection
• Taste of Brillance in KFC Promotion
• Hospital Food A Break from Flavor

That’s just a sampling of what I’ve been up to lately and I’ve got plenty more to come, photos and food, plus I’m still plugging away at Take Back The Beat and The Prophet Within. See the latest in the sidebar.

Yeah, a minute or a month. Wow.

So it seems time got away from me as I took care of other things like the day job, another job (which I’ll talk about in a minute) a week long hospital stay and more. Be that as it may, I’m still determined to make this the best photoblog I can. I’ll still be talking about my other work, but this is where the pictures go.

And while all that’s been going on, I’ve started writing for Ville Voice Eats, the spin-off website from Rick Redding’s The Ville Voice. Rick is a media critic and he’s allowing me to be a food critic on that site. Here’s the latest one, published this morning. If you go back through the posts, you’ll see the rest of my stuff there. So, yeah, on top of everything else, I’m a foodie.

But back to the pictures. Here are some things I’ve shot just driving around town. Still in the queue, some cell phone photos of my son. I’ll tell you why I did that when I post those shots. Also some celebrities from the Grand Gala, a Keith Sweat concert and the beginnings of my Urban Canyon series. It’s going to be fun and I hope you enjoy.

And now a double update. First, over at Take Back The Beat, I review the new Eminem song “We Made You” which is a song about the fans while Slim Shady name drops famous and pseudo famous people. Truthfully, it worked better in his earlier work. Here’s an excerpt:

Back in the day he took on icons like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Those were big name targets. In his new jam, he name drops people like Kim Kardashian. Kim Kardashian? What does she do, exactly? Other than her whooty, what is she famous for again?

Read the entire review and hear a sample of the song here.

Then, over at The Prophet Within, we take a look at Easter and how it fits in with a spiritual seeker, me. What you’ll get there is my take on the holiday and its significance.

And, if we can, we teach others how to achieve their own happiness through the spirit. When you live life through gratitude, your vibrational frequency allows you to manifest you desires. Sounds like the same thing Jesus taught about prayer, doesn’t it?

Read that blog here.

Is this blog post designed to be provocative? No, but the song reviewed on Take Back The Beat might be that. Check this excerpt:

Then here comes Jeremih, who has a marginal song that might explain a few things. When you have a song that’s just passable, is that the reason to put “Birthday Sex” in the title and the hook? Music critics might look at it as trying to salvage a track, rather than improving the track itself.

Read the entire review and hear an excerpt here.

I had the chance to hang out with the radio show “Streets Are Talking” on the subject of storytellers, both through spoken word and with cameras. The focus was on video cameras, but since I’m a still photographer, I pulled out my gear, too. I couldn’t let an opportunity go by, especially when everyone else was exercising their gear.

There are so many things to like about New Orleans and my wife and I are huge fans of the city and the rich history therein. Yes, there have always been issues there, too and the latest comes from Birdman and Lil Wayne. Here’s an excerpt from their new song from Take Back The Beat:

And is it just us or does Lil Wayne sound bored in this one? There’s a difference between a relaxed flow and a “I’m only doing this because I’m under contract” flow and we think Wayne is guilty of the latter on this one.

With all the art in Nola, why is this one so bad? Read the full review and hear a sample of the song here.

One of the good things about the style of blog I’m doing is that I can change the look whenever I feel like it and I like the photo aspects of this one. I also like updating my other blogs, like Take Back The Beat. I just updated with the new Flo Rida song. Here’s an excerpt:

The one thing that Flo Rida has in common with more straight ahead hip hop is that he obviously likes big booty girls as evidenced by hits like “Low” and “Right Round.” This one is in that vein lyrically.

Read the entire review and hear a sample here.