Rodney King, Your Name Will Always Be Remembered

Wow!!  Rodney King died at 47 years old, looking like he was pushing sixty!  Rodney's bad habits and poor decisions gave him a beating far worse than the one that placed him in history in 1991.

<=== In this picture,  Rodney looked like he had been chain-smoking Newports and blounts made with crack cocaine everyday for the last thirty years.  He looked like he ate fast-food morning, noon and night and washed it down with forty-ounces or half-gallon-size soda drinks.

He looked toxic.  He looked like he sweated all the time.  He looked like he had gallons of tar in his lungs.  He looked malnourished, rundown, unhealthy, beatdown.  He looked oxygen-deprived from all the cholesterol blocking his arteries.  He looked like he had hypertension.  He looked like a heart-attack waiting to happen.

When I think of Rodney King, I sometimes think of Dr. Martin Luther King and the coincidence of their last name, a name meaning leadership.  I think about their slight physical resemblance.

I think about how their lives and achievements were extreme opposites and yet they will be remembered for watershed moments in the civil rights history of the United States.  Of course, Rodney King will not be remembered as a hero or for receiving the Nobel Peace prize or for changing the course of American history.  Instead, Rodney King will be remembered as a hapless young black man who was driving while drunk, wouldn't stop when the police tried to pull him over and eventually was beaten by five LAPD, while a dozen watched.   His vicious beating served as the spark that ignited riots in South Los Angeles in protest of LAPD brutality.

King got lucky because someone was taping and sent it to the news where it eventually  became international.  He thus became a symbol for victims who get brutalized by law enforcement everyday and no one knows about it.  And he received $3.8 million dollars (he probably only got 60% of that with attorney fees and all) for his pain and suffering, from the city of Los Angeles.  Again, something most beating victims never get: monetary compensation.

But then Rodney King's luck ran out.  Unfortunately,  he was unable to live a consistent life.  He was a slave to alcohol and drugs.  He got arrested for drunk driving, domestic abuse.  He drove into a brick wall and someone's house.  He was shot in the arm, face and back by unknown assailants when he was riding a bike.  He ran red lights and stop signs and STILL would not stop for cops.

Rodney King
1965 - 2012  

Tiger Woods is Weird

Tiger Woods is like an automaton whose only emotion is meaness. He has the social skills of a rock and I apologize to rocks everywhere. There is a book coming out about him written by coach of six years. The wooden (pun intended) athlete claimed that he learned in rehab that he should have feelings for a woman if he plans on having a sexual relationship. Whaaat? Does that mean he didn't have "feelings" (much less love) for his former wife? Probably.

Then, the book goes on to say that this piece of stone told his wife that there will be no parties, celebrations, fist-pumping, or smiling when he wins a tournament because it is expected that he will always win and it's all in a day's work. What a fun guy.

He has no friends, plays military video games all days, doesn't offer his guests any of the snacks that he eats and has an x-rated sense of humor.

The book comes out in a couple of weeks and I will do a full review - I'm on the waiting list at the library.

Bye, Beautiful

Whitney Houston died today. Officially at 3:55 pm but she was probably dead long before that. In more ways than one. It's like she sputtered out. When she started out she was so fresh, so delectable, so young. And now that seems so long ago, so in another time and place. Whitney today is no more. Her body lies at the Los Angeles City Morgue, waiting to (or perhaps, already have) undergo(ne) an autopsy as I sit here and write this.

The greatest singer of my time has died. I don't know what drove Whitney to do what she did with her life. I have no idea why she couldn't overcome whatever she needed to overcome or what her daily environment was like. Was she hooked on pills? That seems to be the most deadly high for celebrities. Or did her heart just give out from all the years of cigarette and crack smoke? I guess it doesn't matter what made her die she is gone and it's another, new, reality without her.

Beyonce Does Everything Right!

Beyonce is perfect. I can't imagine any fault she might have. She seems like the nicest, most poised, most relaxed, most patient individual, much less superstar, ever. She always smiles for the paparazzi. She is never involved in an "incident." She dated her super-star, mogul husband for years before marrying him in a private wedding right under the media's nose. Now, she's just had the most beautiful, perfect-looking baby girl ever. The baby has a full head of head and has the most beautul face and expression. Her eyebrows are noticeably perfect. She is the perfect baby for the perfect superstar. I look forward to watching her, Blue Ivy Carter, grow up!