The Rant: July 1 edition

Our guest this week was Dr. Diane Schaller from Willow Creek Animal Hospital, who was in studio to talk about her business, click here to visit their site, upcoming animal CPR classes, ways to help your pets cope with the summer heat, the need for animal tethering laws and much, much more.
We also talked about:
• Michael Jackson’s death (are you surprised)
• This Saturday’s pie-eating contest
• Local education-related headlines (school cutting jobs, school enacting Facebook policy, school sex-ed policies)
• Entertainment news with Mary Mason
• A surprise guest (hint: she’s Gov. Sanford’s “soul mate”)

Enjoy.

Our Elvis moment

On Sept. 9, 1956, more than 82 percent of American homes with a television were tuned into Elvis Presley’s debut on the Ed Sullivan Show … a moment that would change music forever.
My grandparents were in their 20s then.
I haven’t asked, but I’m certain they were of the majority.
In February, 1964, on the same stage, a group of mop-topped boys from England performed for the first time in the states, drawing an estimated 73 million viewers … a record for American television at the time.
My dad, who would become a lifelong Beatles fan soon after, was 10 years old.
Flash forward almost 20 years to March 25, 1983. I was a 7-year-old who, like most boys my age at the time, loved all things Star Wars, was discovering the wonderful world of Atari and was a fan of Michael Jackson.
Because of the latter, my mom and dad let me and my younger brother and sister stay up past our bedtime to watch Motown’s 25th anniversary special, a show that would feature Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Supremes, and of course, Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5.
We were giddy — about as giddy as young kids could be a few hours past our bed time — when Michael and his brothers performed a medley of their greatest hits. But it was when Michael ditched the siblings; donned a fedora, white socks and one white glove; and proceeded to moonwalk across the stage that a simple Motown dedication became my generation’s “Beatles’ U.S. debut” or “Elvis on Sullivan.”
Go back and watch the performance (it’s posted all over YouTube and any other video-sharing sites), and it’s instantly clear you’re watching Michael in his prime. The performance (as badly lip-synched as it was) wasn’t necessarily brilliant from start to finish, but Jackson had three things going for him that night — ”Billie Jean,” perhaps the catchiest, most timeless song he’s created; the opening pose with the fedora; and, of course, that moonwalk.
He’d done it so many times after that, that few people remember he only did it twice in this performance, and both for a very short period of time.
But it was so new — so brilliantly done — that it was all anybody talked about for days. Months.
And yes, you can be sure that 7-year-old Billy (who really did own the famous red zipper jacket at one time) tried like heck to imitate it for several years.
Sure, Jackson would have done just as well without the performance (as would Presley and the Beatles without Sullivan), as “Thriller” had already sold millions by the time the Motown special came along. But when people point to Jackson’s iconic television moment, the vast majority of them point to this.
And I’ll forever have the memory of staying up late with my parents, huddled around a crappy color TV with poor antenna reception watching history.
In the years that passed, I outgrew Jackson’s music. I appreciated the “Bad” album in the late 80s, and I took notice of the innovations he was making with his tours and music videos, but the 90s brought Pearl Jam, Metallica, Nirvana and several other depressing bands that took me away from the “pop” world.
Plus, after his hey-day in the 80s, Jackson became more of a punchline than a “legend,” whether it was from the botched plastic surgeries to allegations of child molestation, or his purchase of a chimp and the Elephant Man’s bones.
We all heard the jokes, and sadly, most of them were funny.
It wasn’t until his death this week, and the hours of tributes on every channel that followed, that I rediscovered an appreciation for the King of Pop. I wasn’t around for the younger Jackson 5 days, but those songs are both classic and timeless, and they define the wonderful Motown era. Even the disco-influenced “Off the Wall” isn’t totally dated when hearing it today, and of course, the “Thriller” album will always hold up. I owned it on vinyl, and my brother, sister and I wore it out on our Fisher-Price record player … I may give it another look on iTunes once the hype (and the prices) go back down.
And it’s refreshing to see that for the most part this week, Jackson the punchline has taken a backseat to Jackson the music legend. Oh, I’m sure when the cause of death is released and the custody battles begin for his children, the media and the world will revert back to treating Jackson as a tabloid target.
But for now, let’s remember the good times. Let’s remember staying up late to watch NBC’s Friday Night Videos to catch a glimpse of “Beat It” or “Billie Jean.” Let’s remember those awful zipper jackets and the white gloves. Those older than me — remember the Jackson 5 cartoons. Those younger — they’ve got “Man in the Mirror” and “Black or White.”
And while you’re at it, I’ll remember the moonwalk.
Rest in peace, Mike.

Anybody want/need a kitty?

Although you can’t see it in the photo, this cat is unique … half black and half brown (his back is completely brown, while the head and legs are black). He hangs around our front yard, and we made the mistake of starting to feed him/her. VERY friendly, very curious and very unique. Would make a great pet with a little litter box training.

E-mail me at bliggett @ sanfordherald.com if you want it

The Rant: Anniversary edition

Well, we celebrated a year on the air this week, and for two hours, the show was all about us. Listen for clips from the past year, several “happy birthday” calls from loyal listeners and a few surprise phone calls here and there. Definitely worth sticking around for.

Here’s to another year.

The Rant: A gift to our fans

The above video is a typical Wednesday morning (all we included was the camera and some music) for The Rant, a weekly morning radio show broadcasting from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Wednesdays on 90.5 FM, WDCC in Sanford, North Carolina.
Learn more about us at our Facebook page, http://fbook.me/therant and become a fan today.

This video is a low quality version … and a higher quality version should be downloaded in the coming days.

Miss a day. Miss a lot.

I don’t brag on our paper too much … in fact, I don’t brag on our paper enough.
Our staff has been working hard the past few weeks, and if you ever needed a reason to continue subscribing to your local paper (for those of you who care about the news going on around you), I think Friday’s paper was the perfect example of our relevance.
If your child was one of the hundreds who graduated from Lee County High School last night, we had photos and a story.
If you’re interested in a Lee County deputy allegedly shooting and killing her husband at their home, we had the story, complete with that deputy’s photo (no other news source had that) and quotes from the victim’s father.
Southern Lee fans got a story about a talented graduate (their graduation is tonight), one in a two-week-long series on talented local grads from local schools.
We localized the national story on digital TV beginning for good today.
Hypercondriacs were none too pleased to see our first official swine flu case in Lee County.
And on the inside, we had a nice feature on a teacher retiring in Harnett County after a near-state record 53 years; plus in sports, coverage of the U.S. Women’s Open qualifier at Carolina Trace, where a 13-year-old girl qualified.

These things don’t get covered without your local newspaper. Pick one up. Subscribe. Advertise your business with us. … It would flat-out stink to not have newspapers.

The Rant: June 10 edition

We were firing on all cylinders this week with guest Eddie Watkins, drummer from Dr. Powerful and one of the brains behind the upcoming summer music fest, “This Thing We Did,” set for Aug. 8 at Old Gilliam Park in Sanford (cost is just $5 for a bunch of solid bands). To learn more about TTWD, visit their Myspace page, www.myspace.com/ttwdfest .
Also this week:
* Entertainment news (talk a little Tonys)
* One-year anniversary (ideas for next week’s milestone show)
* Local headlines (Garner explosion, election controversy and more).

Enjoy.

Movie review: The Hangover

It seems the nation is shocked that this little comedy-that-could unseated the mighty Disney Pixar for the No. 1 box office spot this week … and my wife, our friends and I were among the crowd that went to see it this past weekend.
That “The Hangover” is directed by Todd Phillips, the man who brought us “Old School” was pretty much enough to get me into the theater.
Like “Old School,” this one’s about man-children looking to relive their youth … this time through a bachelor party trip to Vegas for groom-to-be Doug (Justin Bartha), best friends Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Stu (Ed Helms) and future brother-in-law Alan (the scene-stealing Zach Galifianakis, an N.C. State alum). The night begins with shots of Jager on the roof, and the next thing we know, our heroes wake up in their hotel suite with a baby in the closet, a live tiger in the bathroom, Doug missing and no recollection of everything that led up to it.
The rest of the film has Phil, Stu and Alan searching for Doug through a series of clues (such as a wedding with a stripper, a visit from Mike Tyson and a naked Chinese man in their trunk.
The result? It’s just a flat out funny movie. A few gags miss the mark (never liked the Chinese guy) but overall, the good far outweighs the bad. I like that all the characters are believable, from Cooper’s flawed straight man to Stu’s dentist who’s afraid of his own fiance (Helms is far more enjoyable than the idiot he plays on “The Office”). But the standout is Galifianakis, who could have easily went the over-the-top Will Ferrell or Chris Farley route with his character, but instead played him as a sincere moron with occasional flashes of insanity (a huge Jonas Brothers fan who can’t be within 200 feet of schools).
This is one guys ages 25-35 will probably buy and memorize some of the lines to (one of my favorites comes from Galifianakis, “Tigers love pepper. They hate cinnamon.” … it’s all in the delivery, I promise).

Grade: 7.5 out of 10

Noelle Marsh on SYTYCD

In Wednesday’s Herald, we reported that Sanford native and 18-year-old Lee County High School graduate Noelle Marsh was one of about 172 dancers who received a ticket to Vegas for a chance at the Top 20 for this season’s “So You Think You Can Dance.”
All results were secret, and we weren’t certain Noelle would be featured or even shown in last night’s episode. I was able to catch the last hour of the two-hour episode (a third “results” hour airs tonight), and for those interested in how Noelle fared, I have good news and bad news.
The Good News: Dancers were knocked off left and right in the first hour, as dancers performed four straight days, four different routines. The good news is Noelle made it to Day 4 (the top 54). She wasn’t “featured” in the second hour (in other words, her back story was never shared), but she could be seen dancing several times, and her name was mentioned toward the end ….
The Bad News: The reason her name was mentioned at the end — she was one to be cut on the final day. Unlike some of the dancers, though, she didn’t turn on the waterworks, and the quick look we got of her, she was smiling and didn’t seem too disappointed.
That’s because she’s young, and more than likely, she’ll be back in next year’s show.

Congrats, Noelle … and good luck next year.

The Rant: June 3

In the (almost) one year since we began this radio show, we’ve had our ups and downs. Many more ups than downs.
This week’s show was “off” by our standards, thanks to a slow start and admitted insensitive attitude by our host. But we’re friends before we’re co-hosts … and we were able to overcome the rough start for an otherwise good show that included:
• Meth talk and amazing insight on the drug by Gordon Anderson
• A discussion about Conan O’Brien and the Tonight Show
• A phone call from Jon’s class reunion stalker
and much, much more.

Enjoy,
Billy Liggett