from the LP The Strange Idols Pattern & Other Short Stories, Cherry Red Records, 1984Last night was Larry King’s final evening on CNN, and even though I rarely made it through the whole hour of his interview show, he was obviously liked by some people in high places (see: former and current heads of state, movie stars, TV stars, musicians, etc…), so much so that it got me to thinking--- what does that say about our culture exactly? Or, increasingly, the whole damn world for that matter, given that the most surreal and head-spinning moment of Larry’s big send-off came not on the final broadcast, but last week when Vladimir Putin professed his love of the King; frankly, that whole exchange was so bizarre, I was speechless…a rare thing (wink). Not to dumb it down or anything, but my clearest memory of Larry King was his coverage of the O.J. Simpson car chase: my friend and I were baked out of our gourds on schwag and found the whole thing beguiling & impossible to turn off…so what does that say about me…? I suppose we all like sticking our noses where they don’t belong from time to time, but Larry King got to enjoy doing it for a living, for over 2 decades. So cheers to him, and cheers to living in a voyeuristic world.
