Origin of the Observation Deck

by Mark Burbey

Much to my initial consternation, when I went to set up my website here on Blogspot, I found that a couple of other bloggers had used the title "Observation Deck" for their sites. I considered thinking of a different title, but I've chosen to use this one because 1) these other bloggers haven't posted in over two years, and 2) I created a humor feature called "Michael Now's Observation Deck" in a magazine I wrote and edited for Fantagraphics in the 1980's titled Street Music. In other words, I thought of it first. Or maybe I didn't. I don't know. A quick Google search uncovers a number of other "Observation Deck" sites and blogs around the world, but I feel pretty confident that none of them were around in the mid-1980s. So this could very well be the return of the original "Observation Deck." Now there's an exciting thought! In any event, I was "Michael Now" and I created "The Observation Deck" as an excuse to indulge humorous rants. (I'll try to reprint these here in the near feature.) These were fun to write, and cartoonist Mark Martin provided the logo (below) and the illustrations. I'd wanted to do more with the Michael Now pseudonym, but never had any success in that department.

This version of "The Observation Deck" will be less about humor and more about editorial commentary. My favorite topics include film, comics and music, but anything is fair game along the way. The idea is to have fun and enjoy some of our favorite pop culture diversions.

I will begin posting blogs on a regular basis shortly.