A Whole Lotta Fancy Going On

Aggravation

When I was growing up, my family would always play this board game called Aggravation, which is just like Trouble or Sorry, but much much better.  It can be an infuriating game, hence its name, but really it’s all just based on luck so if you lose it’s not the end of the world. I always got such a kick out of playing it as a kid probably since it was one of those times when my family would all sit around the kitchen table and let loose.  My dad would always sing “One is the loneliest number” whenever he desperately needed to roll a one.  In fact my mom and him would constantly sing during this particular game, probably since there’s not much thought or strategy involved and you spend most of the time waiting for your turn to roll the dice so everyone would get restless.  I remember my dad singing “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” constantly during this game for some reason.  Like my parents, I would always get silly during this game and often times would be pretty cruel to my younger sister.  My goal was always to aggravate her as often as possible, which meant I would always do everything I could to have my marble take her space and send her back to her “base.”  Looking back I definitely should have let up on her a little bit, but whenever I got silly I could hardly contain myself!

Once I became an adult I still really wanted Aggravation in my life so a few years ago I got my very own Aggravation game.  But to my utter disappointment, the game was bought by Parker Brothers and completely changed.  Instead of the classic board from the 1970s that I grew up with, now it’s a modernized piece of shit.  Instead of the beautiful symmetrical spaciness and the 1970s colors, now it’s all fluorescent and is asymmetrical and as hard to follow as humanly possible.  Painfully the new version also has the tagline, “The classic marble race game… only a lot cooler!”  I was so disappointed in the new version that I started to look for the 1970s version and finally found one on ebay a few weeks ago.  I bought it immediately and it’s probably the best 20 bucks I ever spent.  Now I can enjoy my favorite board game the way it was meant to be played.

Spencer Tweedy's Blog

I came across this blog by Jeff Tweedy’s son Spencer and found it rather enjoyable.  It’s so interesting to hear from a 13 year-old’s perspective on whatever random thing he’s thinking about.  He gets to have all these amazing experiences traveling around with Wilco so he gets to live the rock and roll lifestyle as a young teenager.  Even though my life as a 13 year-old wasn’t nearly as interesting as his, I wish blogs would have been invented at that time so I would have a record of my random thoughts at that age.  It would be fun to look back and see what I was thinking then, but I guess I’ll just have to rely on memories instead.  Anyway I’ll be curious to see how Spencer turns out after having such an interesting childhood.

Michael Jackson

I feel like in order to move on with my life I need to attempt to write about what Michael Jackson means to me.  I’m still processing his death and am somewhat surprised at how much this is affecting me and so many people all over the world.  His influence is becoming more and more clear although it’s impossible to fully grasp the weight of the impact he made on planet Earth.  I’m struck by how his music has inspired people of all different generations, from those who grew up listening to The Jackson 5 on Motown to those who couldn’t escape the cultural phenomenon of Thriller to those who knew him as “the king of pop” throughout the eighties and early nineties. 

For me it all started with a little record called The Wiz.  To this day I still haven’t seen the movie, which is an urbanized retelling of The Wizard of Oz starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.  My mom had this record in her collection and would frequently put it on when my sister and I needed to get out some energy.  I have vivid memories of her putting the record on and me just going ballistic and running and dancing around the room unable to contain myself.  The song “Ease On Down The Road” would start with an interlude of the characters whispering “ease on…ease on…ease on down the road” followed by nervous laughter and then they would repeat this, getting louder and louder, until it climaxed with the song kicking in.  My mom, sister and I would whisper along to this until the music started and we would all just go crazy flying around the room.  We did this same thing over and over and it remains one of the most joyful moments of my childhood. 

As I got older, I began to get into Michael Jackson’s solo career when I started collecting cassette tapes when I was 7 years old.  That year I ended up getting the Bad album and becoming completely obsessed with it.  I remember staring at the artwork and the liner notes while listening to the cassette for hours. I had my favorite songs that I remember thinking about how much they applied to my life at that time.  I had a crush on a girl in my class and thinking, “I just can’t stop loving you,” just like the song goes.  And “Man In The Mirror” made me want to make some major changes in my life as a 7 year-old.  After fully absorbing the Bad album, I desperately had to have more.  For my birthday I remember asking for more Michael Jackson cassettes and that year I got both Off The Wall and Thriller, which I couldn’t have been more excited about.  I remember someone older telling me, “you have to hear Thriller, that’s his most famous one!”  I somehow missed that whole phenomenon since I was 2 when it came out and was living in rural Wisconsin so didn’t see a lot of people walking around with white gloves or anything.  So when I listened to it I felt like I was looking back on a historical moment.  I couldn’t believe how great each song was and was shocked that one person could create so much good music.  It took a little longer to get into Off The Wall since the cover looked so dated and it didn’t even look like the same Michael on there.  Eventually I came around and was blown away by those songs as well. 

After getting into all his music I started seeing his videos and commercials and realizing how much of a superstar he was.  I desperately wanted to be just like him in every way.  I really wanted the white suit from the “Smooth Criminal” video and was thrilled when my uncle gave me a white hat with black band just like Michael’s.  Around this time, I remember there was a Cosby Show episode where they go to a MJ concert and Elvin even does the moonwalk and I remember being so excited that my favorite TV characters love Michael just as much as me. 

As time went on, I started discovering other music and began to doubt Michael as his behavior got more and more bizarre.  It got to be uncool to like him so I moved on like the rest of the kids my age.  But eventually I found my way back to Michael since he had been so much a part of my life and I couldn’t ignore how much joy I got from his music.  Plus the songs hold up amazingly well over time and they still sound as good today as they ever did.  Even as an 11 year-old kid in The Jackson 5, Michael sang with as much soul and passion as anyone.  He put everything he had into his music and that was clear to people of all different colors and ages all over the world.  He was such a unifying figure who appealed, on some level, to what seemed like every human being in the entire world.  The world would be a very different place without Michael Jackson.  R.I.P. Michael.  Thank you for the incredible music.