Forest Lawn It Is

Usedcarsalesman exited the 134W freeway today at the Forest Lawn Dr Exit because he was trying to reach a destination in Toluca Lake. 

So he exits, then proceeds up Forest Lawn Drive past the entrance to Griffith Park on his left and further along past the entrance to the nice Jewish cemetary.  Then he rounds the bend and suddenly he sees media trucks. Not one or two but probably more a large dealership's worth, all with roof-top dishes pointed south-ward.  

At first Usedcarsalesman thought maybe the backside of the Hollywood Hills was experiencing a heavy duty forest fire.  But he didn't see helicopters dropping flame retardant chemicals or anything like he'd seen in the past;  in fact there were no fire-trucks either.

It took a couple of seconds, but then Usedcarsalesman realized what all this media activity was about. He was near a cemetary, Forest Lawn Cemetary.  And who was the very famous American Pop Artist who dies so recently?  

It did seem that Michael Jackson was getting buried at Forest Lawn Cemetary (of all places?).  

July 7 -- tommorow -- being the date of the ceremony.  

Look, Usedcarsalesman is not knocking Forest Lawn Cemetary or anything.  But it is across the road from this giant 4-6 square mile "armpit" of mal-developed real-estate presumably owned by Warner Bros.  

Usedcarsalesman has witnessed as the "armpit" has sat mostly muddy and treeless for the past 5 years. 

Now yes, Forest Lawn Cemetary is probably very nice; I'll have to go there sometime.  But you get up on those nice green grass hills with all the tombstones and frankly, the view facing North has just got to be G&d Awful!

Why not get buried at Neverland, Mike?  We could probably tweak the zoning for you if we passed  a little cash around for Santa Barbera's local elections.   

Heck, why not go old-school and take the dirt nap at Hollywood Forever Cemetary?  That place is class, well at least no bad views and lots of nice things growing -- trees and so forth.  And plenty of Hollywood celebs buried there.  

Alright, alright, Forest Lawn it is, then.  And it is pretty cool to have Rick James up in there with you.