On The Death Of Neil Armstrong : First Moonwalker

I woke up on Sunday morning to find Neil Armstrong had died, the first person to walk on our moons surface.  The last time I felt this way was Michael Jacksons death, back in 2009.  I remember where I was when I found out (at work, my friend Dan, first Vegan I ever met txt me).  I found out about Neil Armstrong dying from checking The Verge on my phone.  While now EVERYONE will claim to have been hugely interested in space history, in travelling to other worlds, I've been mentioning the moonlanding for years now!

When I landed in Auckland on July 20th, 2011, the day you first landed on the moon back in 1969, I uttered your famous words as I stepped off the Boeing 737.

The last episodes of this show have made manned flight to landing on the moon analogies for an example of progress over time, of how Veganism can likewise grow rapidly over the period of sixty, seventy years.  Episode 83 "Rainbow Warriors with Vegan Cupcakes fly to the Moon" was recorded on July 20th, 2012.

Just like with Michael Jackson, *I* had been a fan for a long time, not just boom, once the great man had died! :-)

There were three American astronauts for the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and the often forgotten Michael Collins, who kept the orbiter successfully "in orbit" around the moon, to then pick up the two astronauts who ventured to the moons surface, and return home to Earth.  Michael Collins, who designed the mission badge for Apollo 11 should be remembered and respected! :-)

Your spacesuit might not be as cool as Michael Jacksons in 3D themepark ride "Captain EO"....




...but still amazing to think yours *actually* worked.

Your footprint is as iconic and well recognized as Mr Jacksons white glove.



As the first moonwalker back in 1969, you moonwalked the moonwalk 14 years before the first public Michael Jackson Moonwalk at Motown 25, and a further 19 years before the film Moonwalker would come out.  To be fair - in 1969, Michael Joseph Jackson was but 11 years old, a very poor African American child from Gary, Indiana, and you were a grown man.  It was a few months later, October before the first Jackson 5 hit "I Want You Back" was released, well after you'd strutted your lunar stuff.


If there were a heaven, I'd like to picture the you took photo of Buzz Aldrin, added into this photo of the moon I took today at the Otepuni Gardens: learning to moonwalk from Michael Jackson, while wearing Etiko fair trade sneakers (astronaut picture didnt have any footwear!), while the 2001: A Space Odyssey starchild Bowman watches on in awe.

Neil Armstrong, the first person from planet Earth to walk on another planetary body in our universe.  Our greatest collective achievement as a species.


(epic moonwalk at 5m mark, while the bass part gets really funky)
You went there in peace, you took photos of your friend Buzz (below) and you changed the world.