Whatca Say?

I am notoriously bad at recognizing celebrities in real life. Of course, I've only run into a celebrity twice in my life. Both times someone else had to point them out and say Look. It's so and so. And I never believed them. Ever. Besides what do you say? I'm not an autograph OMG type person and I certainly don't want to bother anyone.

Which leads me to another topic. Book authors. They are my own brand of celebrity. The kind I am actually excited to meet. They add value to the world, literacy etc. and are usually very nice and I have never know what to say to any of them. Granted I've only meet them at library conferences where you have like 5 seconds to say something witty and urbane and I can be so terminally shy that it doesn't work out. So I end up standing there like a mute idiot, getting my book signed and walking away. Oh why wasn't I blessed with the ability to say Hi in a reasonable manner?

For example, at one conference I meet Maureen Johnson and I was so excited that I made my friend stand in line too. I waited and finally made it up there and then all I could manage was something about a certain book banning of hers that was a big topic at the time. Which was everyone else was talking to her about! So lame and so unoriginal. She's seems like a cool gal so I should have something else prepared.
At the same conference (I think) I meet Rachel Cohn since she was signing with David Leviathan. I had read her Gingerbread books but, honestly, I hadn't read anything by him. Anyway, they both had short stories in a book I had just read. I mentioned it and she said she had forgotten she had written it. My one topic! So then I just stood there.
My friend KRose is a different story. She attended a conference with me in Chicago and meet Libba Bray who I had talked nonstop about forever. But she was scheduled at the same time as some workshop and I stupidly choose the workshop and missed meeting her. But KRose got a book autographed for me and apparently had a wonderful conversation with her. Which is so cool. I wish I could be as outgoing as that. KRose can talk to anyone at anytime and she never feels awkward or anything. And I don't know why I do either. I mean, the odds that anyone will remember me is teeny-tiny. If I could only think of something to say...

You've been hit by a smooth criminal

Cleolinda wrote a very nice memory post about Michael Jackson (I agree with everything she says and have the same memories) and it got me thinking. It is a shame to have lost 2 of pop cultures biggest icons on the same day. While I liked Farrah Fawcett and thought she was a very beautiful woman and seemed like a nice person, I never really saw her in anything other than a Jonathan Taylor Thomas movie. I feel sad for her family to have lost her and wish them well. And now her death has been (momentarily) overshadowed by Michael Jackson's. Hers was, frankly, expected while his was not.

But Michael Jackson was a constant part of my life growing up. He and Madonna are the biggest icons to come out of the same era, even if he started out younger. They are the only ones I can really think of from when I was growing up that seem like peers to me.

My favorite song is Smooth Criminal (maybe mostly since my nickname is Annie) and I love that video. I remember being scared of the Thriller video and would run from the room when it came on. He was undeniably talented and it is a shame that his life went in such a downward spiral. And it is a shame that no one seems to know how or if to honor him for what he was or what he'd become. But I've always said people are who they are even after death. I see no point in sentimentalizing the dead, they were who they were and should be remembered for everything. There is a whole lot more that could be said, but that about sums it up.