It’s always sad when a celebrity you like dies, but it never has really affected me much. I don’t know exactly why, but the death of Michael Jackson at the age 50 has seriously bummed me out.

Maybe it’s because listening to Thriller is one of my earliest memories of really digging music. Singing along and doing my best MJ dancing impression was something me and my friends would do while the Thriller vinyl was spinning on my Holly Hobbie record player. I have no idea why my record player was a Holly Hobbie record player but it was. From Sears.

I mean, what kid in the 80s didn’t love Michael Jackson? I stared longingly at the red zippered jacket at the mall. I wanted the sparkly glove. I wanted to go to Neverland Ranch…before we knew about all that other business.

Maybe it’s because his death marks the first death of a childhood icon thus reminding me of my own mortality and the end of an era. Death comes for everyone, even the highly talented yet royally screwed up ones. Michael had his problems, but his impact on our culture is huge.

I bet Weird Al is grateful for Beat It.

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In this installment Mississippi’s Finest Actor, Kary Rogers, takes you through essential techniques for acting on film.

See previous MSFA video here

Waiting for Tim and Eric Awesome Tour ‘09 live show to start. I’m about 3 feet from the stage and have been on my feet for about 3 hours waiting in various locales. I don’t know a soul here but it’s good to know I’m around people that appreciate the same kind of humor that I do. I find that Tim and Eric are very polarizing among people.

The show should start in about 15 minutes. I’m bored standing here so I thought I’d use the wordpress app on my phone that I’ve only used once before.

Salame!

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Back in August, when I was still in good ol’ Missip, I emailed in for the Saturday Night Live ticket lottery. My understanding is that there is a date window in which you can request tickets for the show and then they draw the tickets lottery style.

Well, I had completely forgotten about it until last week when I received an email from NBC.com. Glancing at it, I thought it might be for Conan tickets since I had emailed for those recently. But no, it was for SNL! I’ll be going to the Feb 7th dress rehearsal. I’m sooooo excited^

A few days later, I received an email that I had tickets for a Feb 17th taping of Conan too. He’s wrapping up his New York show and moving to LA to take over the Tonight Show, so I’ll get to see one of the last shows. I can’t hide it!

In more than one way. The big news is that I had my first celeb sighting since moving to New York. I wrote about it for the cool cats over at F*cked in Park Slope. And if my momma sees that, I’m gonna get a phone call.

Yes, it’s true that I moved from Mississippi to New York City. It’s true that I started a great new job in Manhattan and that I live in a cool neighborhood in Brooklyn. And it’s true that I now live in a part of the country that utilizes all four seasons and not just summer.

But.

That’s not the entire truth. I haven’t told you why I moved. Or rather, why I had to move.

See, Mississippi has the honor of being the fattest state in the nation and is currently trying to improve its image. To that end it is trying a two-pronged approach. One: there is a expansive movement to educate and motivate people to eat right and exercise. An example of this is the Let’s Go Walkin’ Mississippi campaign. If you live in Mississippi, you can’t help but be inundated with TV and radio ads touting the benefits of walking. But, there is a lesser-known, second approach to improving Mississippi’s standing in the health statistics.

If you’re over a certain BMI, your name goes into a lottery drawing. Once a month they draw a certain number of names and these names have 6 months to move to a state with a lower obesity rate. The thought behind this is that Mississippi’s numbers are instantly improved and the other state’s numbers are worsened in one fell swoop.

Pretty shrewd, ain’t it?

Well, my name came up so I’m doing my part to make Mississippi healthier and pull New York down. Now you know. Which is totally half the battle.

Pretty much everyone is doing their 2008 recap. What happened? What did you do? What goals and milestones did you reach? You know, that kind of stuff.

I think you already know most of mine but without further ado, we here at IMKH will hit the highlights of ‘08.

January: I think I got a new pair of shoes.
February: I..uh…I’ll come back to this one.
March: If I remember it right, I had heard gas was three cents cheaper across town so I headed over there only to find out it was the same price as my side of town. Oh man!
June: High dive. Dong exposure. Small children crying. That’s all I’m saying.
September: Uh…pass.
Octo…

Forget it. Nothing really happened in ‘08 with our country or for me personally worth mentioning. Here’s hoping 2009 takes an upswing. Maybe I’ll finally get that navy blue blazer I’ve been wanting.

Here’s the picture I posted before of our street soon after we first moved in.

And here it is again a couple of weeks ago after our first snow storm.

They say in the south, you’ll never meet a stranger. People will bend over backwards to help you if you need a hand. Admittedly, I was afraid that when I moved up here to New York I’d be put off by the unfriendliness of the locals. I think everyone has heard how New Yorkers would step over a dying man rather than do anything to help.

You know what? Everything I had heard is completely wrong.

Back home you tend to know just about everyone around town. It’s not uncommon to be out and around town while someone driving along will see you and give you a friendly honk. Etiquette dictates that you return it with a friendly nod and a wave. This is about the only time you hear a car’s horn.

Imagine my surprise while walking down 34th street and every other car is giving me a friendly honk. They tend to lay on the horn a little more than they do back home but that’s probably because there’s a lot going on around me and I may not notice them honking right away. So I turn their way and give them the required nod and wave. I tell ya, I can’t walk two feet before having to stop and wave at someone. It’s great everyone is so friendly but it takes me twice as long as it should to walk a single block.

So let it be said that New Yorkers are way friendlier than you might have heard. So much so that I have trouble sleeping at night while they honk a little hello to all their friends.

First, let me address my cryptic post recently about being in San Francisco. I was barely getting settled in NY when I had to take off to SF for a week of training with my new job. I had fully intended to sit down that evening in the hotel and write up a big My New Life Thus Far post but I wimped out and made up some nonsense instead. My apologies to all.

So. I’ve been in the Big Apple for just over 2 months now. We’ve gotten all settled in and there are no more boxes sitting around. It’s kinda late right now, but remind me to post some pics of our apartment after the movers delivered all the boxes filled with our junk. Holy Moley.

I think about our life and friends and family that we left in Mississippi and I miss it all so. Fortunately, we like it here too and it balances out pretty well. But, Lord, is it cold.

We packed everything up as best we could and let the movers do the rest. It was weird to sit in our empty trailer after living there for 7 years.

We caught a last football game (and the Dawgs won!).

Then we rented a car and started our 3 day trip to NY.

We stopped in at the Natural Bridge.

I managed to snap a quick pic as we crossed the Mason-Dixon Line. Goodbye South.

We stopped at Hersey, Pennsylvania and tried not to spend too much money on chocolate.

I drove across Manhattan and over the Manhattan Bridge. Regardless of this photo, I was completely sober.

The next day, all our junk was delivered.

This is right outside our door looking up towards Prospect Park.

We live 4 blocks from Prospect Park.

This is our neighborhood, Park Slope, Brooklyn.

We took a carriage ride in Central Park. The horse decided to leave without the driver, who is taking the picture.

We’ve already had the first big snow storm though I’m not sure if we got any pictures. We also had visitors from Mississippi which was fun. Now the new year is upon us and we look forward to what it will bring. Personally, I’m hoping for less siren noise.