Tag: whitney houston

Dick Clark’s Place in Heaven


      Icons, Famous people they say die in threes, and 2012 has already seen two go with the deaths of Whitney Houston and now a bigger Legend and Icon in Dick Clark, a Producer, Host, and man of Music and Dance fame with American Idol and more.

         Wether it is true they go in threes I have no idea or proof, but if they do, then who would be next I have no idea. But the sadness about these famous people dying is America is not creating and encouraging enough kids today to be the same way. To be shakers, changers, creators and minds that help the world, we need you if your out there.  Not only does America need such people so does the world over all, for the great ones, change history and life in different parts of the world to make it a better world for all.

      Dick Clark like Whitney Houston will live forever in the minds and hearts of generations of americans who sat and watched his Bandstand, or his New Year’s Eve with Dick Clark each year. His introduction of Motown to public Television and the world was a force in the 1960s and will live forever for Motown shall never die either. Music no matter type, color, race, style, brings together all people and Dick Clark proved that with Bandstand, putting African Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians and all on his Bandstand and letting them enjoy the tunes and dance. His Iconic mind and thoughts united humanity and all races in America, making us a better nation and leading country.

       Over my lifetime, American heros, Idols, Icons and more have died. I could list them but I could never remember all of them. Each meant a different thing to me, and in Dick Clark’s case it was music, dance and fun. But Dick Clark promoted and defended and loved Television and it’s ability to entertain and educate. Thank God he choose the professions he did, for his work brought joy to billions.

        Television from the days I grew up, in the 1960’s, had some of the greatest shows ever on. We had Mutual of Omaha and Disney World, McHale’s Navy, My Favorite Martian, Mr. Ed, My Mother the Car, 77 Sunset Strip, Charlie’s Angels, Combat, Rat Patrol, and many more entertaining and fun-filled shows ranging from comedy to drama and more. We had Variety hours run by the best in the business, Dean Martin, Jackie Gleason, Red Skeleton,Ed Sullivan, these people believed in really entertaining for the money they were paid.

       Among those greats now, joins in Dick Clark to emcee the greatest assemblage of stars in Music, Hollywood, and more in Heaven. I can see Dick now standing by some of the greats who died before him and still entertaining, interviewing and laughing in Heaven. Rest in Peace Dick Clark, and may you put together one heck of a show in heaven and have a good after life.

 

The Writing Bug!


Each day I wonder what subject to cover in my blog, or what story or poem to write. How does one decide what to put in writing and tell the world or private friends or family?  You don’t want your life explained or examined by strangers or anyone else, so you tend to stay with subjects meant for the public to  read and care about.

       I have covered so many subjects on my blog from Politics, Republican primaries, Democratic too, and benefits that will affect the whole senior population over 50 in the United States. Items such as will Social Security be there for those who paid into it, or will it be all borrowed out? Will Medicaid and Medicare still be there, or will they be phased out by the rich so the poor have nothing left to lean on?

       I have covered the Death of a Diva in Whitney Houston, who all now know died a cocaine related death in a bathtub at age 48. The sad loss of such a talented person hits us everyday, in many ways and each of us is affected a little differently.

       Doctors fighting Cancer, illnesses, and more I have written about. I did a story called The Disease which deals with the rising rate of cancer among people in the USA and how it has affected my life and my beliefs and my way of thinking.

       My stories range of love, and death, and Naval life, but the biggest stories I have ever told are family stories the stories of parents gone wrong, children in pain and survivors.

        My poems have ranges the same breath and width of the human soul, from love, to lust, to health and to death, yet I still fight a subject and write as much as I can, hoping humanity will experience and understand what I say and enjoy some of it. Am I wrong for doing so, I doubt it and i don’t tend to use language that can disturb or upset people I write in plain American English is all.

        The hardest part for any story-teller, poem teller or blog writer, is to flesh out what you write about to show the emotions, fears and cares of the people you write on and the scenes have to be vivid and catching too. The subjects can range of course but we all know, what the audience really wants is something to catch their mind and grab them and carry them through the story so they can look at family and friends and show them or repeat it themselves.

       Doris Kearns Goodwin does that, Robert Ludlum did that when he was alive, and Jack London did it also in the early 1900s. Writing such as Poe gave us poems that hit the soul and make us think, Shakespeare wrote so many plays he is never forgotten. Singers and writers write songs of stories and songs of love, they may range from rock and roll to country to even classical, but they still write and pass it all on.

       America’s past and its future is built on writers and the stories, ideas and poems and songs they write. It is a country that learns lessons from the written, sung and spoken words. In the end it can be the writers of all kinds that can bring the world to  peace or destruction by what they write and show to all of us. Writers carry a large responsibility as well as the respect of many in the world. We all look for the items written that touch our souls, hearts and minds and we find them written by people who are in the end human in every way. That is what is called the writing bug that bites many humans in the world.

Death of a Diva


      As I sat around yesterday, watching Whitney Houston’s Funeral at her church in Newark, New Jersey, I wondered about a few things. Why was this on television on such a channel as the World’s Leader in News? Why was the flag in New Jersey hanging at half-mast for a singer and actor, who was an addict and alcoholic?  What right was given to the Houston Family to force us all to watch this funeral and why?

        In the past many stars and singers have died who deserved the same coverage or better.  Native New Jersey people, like Frank Sinatra, when he died didn’t get the flag at half-mast. Other stars and singers also died from drugs and alcohol across America, yet they did not get the honors New Jersey’s Governor gave to Houston. Why?

         I do not have the answers for much of these questions and I am not proud or happy to have to raise them either. Isn’t it amazing though how one person from Newark, New Jersey who died due to more than likely her own fault, is celebrated so loudly and so large? Yes Whitney Houston did a couple of decent films and had hit recordings with her voice, but someone tell me where and when did she serve her country in military life style and  when did she become a politician that contributed to our way of life? She didn’t at anytime, so why the Half-Mast Salute?.

       As I watched many people file to the podium of that church to speak about Whitney, I wondered, when was her real last concert, her real last recording, how long ago and far away did Whitney begin to lose her voice and vocal cords?. And why? I know the Houston Family, and her Aunts and GodMother and ex-Husband will never answer these questions or see them, but how long ago and far away was the Whitney we saw singing in the movies and videos and on cds?. Will we ever know, I doubt it, because like many celebrities, before her, her past and her addictions and habits and lifestyle will never be really shown. Her death revived memories of Judy Garland’s, years ago. A singer no longer with the ability to push out the songs she used to turns to alcohol and drugs to soothe herself and ends up dead, because the addictions overcame her.

        The fears famous people must live with are real, so are the needs to help them support their fragile personalities and to shore them up. Yet, in the end, it should be family and friends who do the shoring up, and it should be done without the abuse of drugs or alcohol.  Who is responsible for a star, turning to drinking and drugs to survive?. Those who enable them with the drugs and drinks and don’t say, that’s enough or no you can’t anymore!. Money buys anything, fame pushes it further and wham, we end up with the Death of a Diva!

      In the end those who let Whitney drink and do drugs are the ones that should answer for this all, she is gone now and no one can speak for her. Whitney I am sure, would have told us had she survived who started her down this road to an early death, but, it is too late now isn’t it?. The Death of a Diva, is the death of a talent and heart so big, it may never be forgotten!.