Hero of Our Time

Tweet At my gym this morning, the TV was blaring the last half hour of Good Morning America.  Impossible to ignore unless you had headphones -- unfortunately, I had forgotten mine today.

One of the hosts was introducing a pop singer, Chris Brown, and the introduction included a line that he had beat up his girlfriend and, something along the lines of,  had served his time and was taking responsibility and changing his direction -- blah, blah, blah -- it was like the script had been written by one of Brown's publicists.

Anyway, the GMA host asked him about the assault on his girlfriend and he said something like -- that's the past, today is Album Day -- I want to talk about my new album. The host actually apologized to Brown for asking the question. Geez. To her credit, she actually asked him a similar question about the assault and Brown gave a similar response.  She actually apologized yet again. For the rest of the segment, she threw him a few softball (easy) questions and then he performed, his fans went wild and the show ended.

Turns out that Brown was seething over those two questions. Once the cameras were off, Brown turned violent -- broke a window in his dressing room at GMA, nearly got into a fight with a GMA producer and then strangely, ripped off his shirt and walked onto a Manhattan street showing off his tattoos.

I expect this whole episode will boost his publicity -- and sell more of his new "album."  This kind of behavior has certainly helped another celeb -- Charlie Sheen.

The public has an odd way of choosing heroes and role models.

Super Moon

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The Super Moon as viewed in Western North Carolina

The rise of the super moon last night was a bit of a bust here because of heavy cloud cover; however, an hour or so after sunset, the moon beam burst through the clouds.

Last night was special because the moon was at perigee -- its shortest distance from the Earth. The last "super" moon was 18 years ago. If you were lucky enough to see the moon rise last evening -- it was probably an awesome sight.  According to astronomers, the "super" moon was about 20 percent brighter and 15 percent bigger than a regular full moon.

Did you get a good glimpse of the "super" moon?  If so, please share your photos!

The Super Moon over Athens. (Photographer: Anthony Ayiomamitis)