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This week, if you just happen to be in Vegas, you can grab a show. And it’ll be a typically spectacular show if you go to the Mandalay Bay Casino, which is previewing Cirque du Soleil’s new Michael Jackson retrospective-extravaganza starting May 23.

The show is called "One," and it’s actually the second acrobatic-dancers-flying-through-the-air-with-the-greatest-of-ease spectacle from Cirque based on the late King of Pop’s music. Cirque’s first Michael Jackson-themed show, called ‘Immortal,’ is raking in the dough -- and touring the world -- right now. This new show, by contrast, will open and stay in Vegas, just like everything else that happens there is supposed to.

Michael Jackson, who died in 2009 of a prescription-drug overdose, makes more in death than any living artist today makes, according to Forbes magazine. His family’s estate takes in approximately $145 million per year from iTunes song and album sales; merchandising; films; and these incredibly successful Cirque du Soleil shows (tickets start around $69 apiece and go up to the mid-hundreds).

Media analyst Jack Myers says Jackson was having trouble even getting on stage in his last years. But absent the troubled artist late in life, his music is perfect for this kind of show.

“He defines the pop era,” says Myers. “And unlike the Beatles or Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson not only had the music, but he had the dance, he had the moves.”

Those moves translate perfectly into Cirque’s characteristic choreography, with dancer-acrobats soaring over the audience to the contagious beats of ‘Stranger in Moscow,’ ‘Smooth Criminal’ and other Number 1 hits. The music is not live, but instead recorded versions of Jackson’s songs from master recordings, mostly from the era of ‘Thriller’ and ‘Bad,’ says Jeff Lovari, Cirque’s publicist in Las Vegas.

That was the 1980s, when the adult Michael Jackson -- as a solo artist -- was on top. But later his reputation was tainted by allegations of pedophilia, drug use, and lavish living at Neverland.

That doesn’t devalue Jackson and his brand now, says Myers -- quite the contrary.

“The controversy of his life keeps the tabloid media happy, the social media,” says Myers. “And I think you have an incredible combination for a career that will continue to grow.”

Meaning, Jackson’s popularity continues to grow, even as his aging fans grow old, says Jonathan Taplin, director of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab.

“The market for nostalgia, especially of dead ‘70s celebrities, is pretty strong,” Taplin says. "Look at the number of Elvis impersonators or Beatles cover bands. It’s boomers reliving their early coming of age, first sexual experiences, taking drugs, whatever. It’s all some deep, deep nostalgia of a time that was for them incredibly magic and which they were never able to capture again.”

Taplin says Jackson’s musical legac, from the Jackson 5 years to his ‘80s heyday, sits in a sweet spot for pop music. The music was global, and it belonged to the first generation of rockers.

“The boomer audience has still stayed attached to the music they grew up on,” says Taplin. “That’s why The Eagles sell out arenas. And if you look around, there’s not much hair on the men.”

But Michael Jackson moves young people too.

Davina Labbe, also know as VJ Kittyrox, puts on ‘80s Video Dance Attack every Friday night in Portland, Ore., at one of downtown's biggest clubs. The show’s been drawing hundreds of 20-to-30-something club-goers for going on eight years.

VJ Kittyrox says she’ll put on a slower-paced Michael Jackson song like 'Rock with You,' about an hour after the doors open, just to get things going. Then, once the dance floor’s full, she’ll alternate songs like ‘Billy Jean,’ or ‘Thriller’ with songs by Prince, New Order, the Bangles, and other '80s pop stars, to pump up the energy to a frenzy.

“And like every Michael Jackson song,” she says, “everybody knows every word, every beat. I think everyone on the planet owned that album ["Thriller"]. It just brings up the energy to this level that no other artist or song can do.”

VJ Kittyrox says today’s music industry doesn’t deliver hits that everyone around the world knows and can sing along to. Which is why Michael Jackson will live -- and sell -- on.

When it becomes clear to Canadian jazz singer Alexis Normand that she doesn't remember the words, she tries to mumble her way through the national anthem.

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The IRS gave some conservative groups extra, improper scrutiny. Now there's a bipartisan request for the IRS to answer dozens of questions. Read the queries and demands for information from the top Democrat and top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

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North Korea's capture of a Chinese fishing boat and its crew of 16 has angered Beijing, adding to its concern over Pyongyang's recent provocations.

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Shunning the formalities of his office and focusing on poverty, Pope Francis is drawing a sharp contrast between his 2-month-old papacy and those of his predecessors.

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The White House correspondent's story about administration emails created an uproar. Then a key part of it turned out to be wrong.

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The CSCOPE curriculum had come under intense criticism for lessons some conservatives called un-American. Activists called the attack on the lesson plans a "witch hunt."

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My husband and I have been gardening for nine years. I don’t even want to think about the amount of money I’ve spent on the garden during that time, but I can definitely tell you that growing our own food hasn’t saved us money.

True confessions on the economics of growing our garden

This year we spent $124 on worms called “beneficial nematodes.” They’re microscopic, and burrow in and kill the eggs and larvae of harmful insects. (They’d better work!)

Last year, I was prepared to spend $400 on dirt, but I was saved when the truck that was supposed to deliver it couldn't get up our narrow driveway. We got a full refund.

In years past, we’ve had a number of one-time budget busters. We had to buy yards and yards of deer fence to surround our garden and protect it from the marauding Bambies of our neighborhood. There was also the yards and yards of bunny fence to keep out all the Thumpers, too. That didn’t deter one determined mother rabbit who decided to have her babies in our garden. I ran around after them, banging pots and pans to scare them. (That didn’t cost anything, except my dignity in front of my neighbors.)

Now, some studies swear you can save a bundle growing your own food. Did I mention most of them were done by seed or fertilizer companies? A blog on Burpee’s website says, “Your little tomato patch yields you a thousand dollars worth of store bought tomatoes from a seed packet that costs you three or four dollars. Your return on investment? 250 to 1 or 25,000 percent. J. P. Morgan would not pass up that kind of opportunity.”

Why we really garden

Here’s the thing: Gardeners don’t necessarily grow vegetables to save money. That’s certainly the case with me and my husband. I like the exercise and the taste of a fresh-picked tomato is priceless. Plus, our garden is organic. I like the idea of giving my kids veggies that aren’t dunked in pesticide.

Bruce Butterfield is research director for the National Gardening Association. He says, “The money-saving aspect is not the main reason why people are growing tomatoes in the back yard.”  

Butterfield says people mainly want good quality, better-tasting food. 

How to save a few pennies

There are some things you can do to cut down costs. My husband and I share our garden, and its expenses, with another couple. We also make some of our own soil by composting.

Cindy Haynes, a horticulturist at Iowa State University, says it’s a good idea to plant things that you can later preserve, like tomatoes or squash. She also says to plant vegetables like lettuce or spinach because they don’t take up much space, and grow fast.  

“You can continually plant them,” Haynes says. “So you harvest, then you plant again. So you can get two or three crops out of a single growing season.”

So, does growing your own food really save you money? Don’t hate me, but I have to say it depends. If you have crummy soil like we do, you’ll have to buy some good, composted soil. And if you live in a hot, humid place like we do, you’ll have to water a lot. 

To definitely answer this question for myself, I’m doing an experiment this spring and summer. I’m going to keep track of how much we spend on our garden and how much it produces.

I’ll be tweeting about it, so follow me: @MarshallGenzer

I’ll let you know if that $124 investment in worms pays off!

People diagnosed with ADHD as children may be more apt to be obese in adulthood, scientists say. Differences in brain biology or the impulsiveness typical of ADHD may contribute to lasting, bad eating habits.

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The country's biggest cell phone companies -- Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon -- are uniting with AT&T in their first joint advertising program to help prevent teens from texting while driving. The campaign is called, "It Can Wait."

Over 40 percent of teens say they’ve texted while driving. Karen Torres, a mom of two on Long Island, is terrified of how comfortable her kids are with technology.

“My oldest daughter will be getting her permit October first. I’m scared to death. I’m scared to death,” she says.

That’s because Karen’s daughter is a texter.

“One month last year, she had 19,411 text messages in a month,” Torres says.

AT&T and Sprint have created apps to stop teens from texting while driving. And AT&T says last year it spent tens of millions of dollars on its “It Can Wait" campaign. Even Allstate offers Bluetooth hardware to keep teens focused on the road. But the phones and apps that teens use are updated faster than you can compose a text.

Jeff Kagan, a tech industry analyst, says the ever changing world of tech has the creators of text-blocking software stuck playing a permanent game of catch-up.

“Think about it like the radar detector in your car, versus the speed gun that the police use -- the technologies continue to get better every year. The solution that will work today, won’t work tomorrow,” he says.

Some texting blocking apps, like AT&T’s Drive Mode are free. Others charge a monthly fee of a few dollars.

But Andrea Matwyshyn, a professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton, notes that distracted driving isn’t caused by texting alone.
 
“It is kids putting on their makeup and driving. It is kids reaching for their music collections while they’re driving,” she says.

Matwyshyn says kids need to learn judgment. “Whenever you have a tech-driven attempt to solve a developmental problem for kids, it will fail without a concerned education based interpersonal effort. Technology can’t solve the problems that kids experience as they’re growing up, to learn to be functioning human beings in our society. No app will ever be the killer solution for that.”

Karen Torres, the mom whose daughter is about to get her permit, knows the importance of education. A distracted driver hit and killed her father six years ago. Now Torres works with the Texting Awareness Foundation as a speaker at schools.
 
“What’s really scary is that when I ask the kids how many of their parents text and drive, probably about three-quarters of the classroom raise their hands,” she says.
 
Torres says should teens should use these apps. But she also says there’s another very simple piece of technology drivers should keep in mind -- the off button.

This morning, city officials in Nashville cut the ribbon on the largest public building project in its history -- a new convention hall called the Music City Center.

But Nashville isn't just the latest city to open a convention center. These mammoth buildings are opening or getting facelifts coast-to-coast. And standing out now takes more than a huge exhibition space and easy access.

“Once upon a time, convention centers were referred to as a ‘box with docks,’” says TVS Design principal Andy McLean. “There was not a lot of architecture going on.”

McLean’s Atlanta-based firm designed the Music City Center along with more than 60 other convention centers around the country, including a recent facelift to the Cobo Center in Detroit.

McLean calls Nashville’s center a “culmination” after years of design evolution. There’s natural light everywhere and glass on all sides, meant to cut down on the fortress-like feeling. The glass offers good views of the city, but it also has a practical function. The nearby buildings should help visitors orient themselves in the convention center.

“Many times you get in convention centers, you get lost. You don’t know where you are,” says Seab Tuck of Nashville-based Tuck Hinton Architects, part of the design team. “This building is so simple.”

Instead of a maze of hallways, there is essentially a ring of open corridors that surround the exhibit space, ballrooms and meeting rooms.

In terms of creature comforts, there is free Wi-Fi. There’s a plan to allow conventioneers headed to the airport to check their bags at the center giving them more time to roam the city.

On the softer side, this building had a $2 million art budget, with specially commissioned pieces. Many are inspired by one of the city’s leading industries: music.

The 1.2 million-square-foot building itself has takes cues from the city’s calling card. From the air, part of the roof looks like an acoustic guitar body. The four-acre green roof has hints of a fret board. The 57,000 square foot grand ballroom is meant to look like the inside of an acoustic guitar.

The rippled roof is probably the most iconic feature, running the three-block length of the building. It made the project more expensive because it cut down on repetitive structural forms. Each crossbeam had to be specially designed.

The exhibit hall is far from the biggest, but it’s intended to have unique capabilities. For instance, 400 anchor points in the rafters can each support as much as one ton, giving the ability to hoist small cars into the air.

City officials have been on the defensive about the nearly $600 million price tag, even though it’s supposed to be paid for by visitor taxes on hotels and rental cars.

They hope the design will help distinguish Nashville among convention destinations, because there are several projects in the pipeline. Cleveland opens a new facility this summer. And some of the country’s largest convention centers have seen business drop off in an increasingly saturated market.

“We’re going to do very well. We’ve been doing well,” predicts Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. “We’re not asking the building to suddenly make Nashville a popular place to come to. It already is.”

Host Michel Martin looks into why some non-profits are tax exempt, and how something like the recent IRS flap could happen. She speaks with David Cay Johnston, a columnist for Tax Analysts and reporter Brentin Mock of Colorlines.com.

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A 3-year-old grizzly in Alaska found a GoPro camera that had been set up to capture nature scenes. The result: Very upclose video. Warning: If slobber and big teeth aren't your thing, this video may not be for you.

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Turness becomes the first female president of one of the big three television networks in the U.S. She is scheduled to take the helm in August.

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People are notorious for under-reporting what they consume — they lie, forget or just guess wrong. For researchers who want to know how much soda we're drinking, a high-tech analysis technique could help.

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The opposition from the National CIS Council is a boost to the National ICE Council, which until now had been the lone voice of opposition among enforcement unions.

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Prayers said before meetings of the town board in Greece, N.Y., have predominantly been Christian. A lower court ruled that officials hadn't done enough to seek out prayers from other faiths. That violates the Constitution's Establishment Clause, the court said. Now the Supreme Court will weigh in.

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What happens if the Federal Reserve takes away the big can of sterno it put under the U.S. economy?

Public pension funds rebound from recession. But for some the recovery still doesn't mean they are doing as well as they should.

Yahoo's Tumblr acquisition is a big part the mission for new CEO Marissa Mayer -- a mission to make the aging Internet company cool again.

Yahoo expects the Tumblr deal to increase its audience by 50 percent to more than a billion visitors a month. But the most important thing about those new users is, they’re young.

“You know, the cool, the hip," says IDC tech analyst Ramon Llams. "The people who use Tumblr pretty much each and every single day.  So it’s tapping into an area that Yahoo has slowly been losing share to.”

But a lot could go wrong. Yahoo has bought other Internet startups, only to let them wither away, like Flickr. Yahoo acknowledged this in the press release announcing the Tumblr deal with a “promise not to screw it up.”

Audio Extra: Tech analyst Greg Stergling shares his thoughts on Yahoo's purchase and whether the company can monetize Tumblr's young user base.

Greg Sterling, tech analyst with Opus Research, says, for one thing, Yahoo shouldn’t immediately blanket Tumblr with banner ads.

“If Yahoo were to show up and start throwing traditional banners in there, you’d have a lot of people objecting and it would not be particularly effective.”

Especially since Tumblr CEO David Karp has resisted advertising. 

It remains to be seen whether money can buy hipness, but it can certainly buy brainpower. Since Marissa Mayer took the helm of Yahoo, the company has been acquiring tech and media brains.

A look at Yahoo's recent run on brainpower:

Stamped

Yahoo purchased Stamped, which was Mayer's first acquisition as CEO, in October of 2012. Stamped is a New York City start-up with a mobile app that allows users to record and share recommendations with friends. All of Stamped's nine employees were reported to join Yahoo.

OnTheAir

In December of 2012, Yahoo purchased video chat broadcasting app OnTheAir. The app lets people webcast single or splitscreen interviews. All five members of the start-up joined Yahoo's mobile team.

Snip.It

In January of 2013, Yahoo acquired Snip.It, a Pinterest-like app which lets users clip and display news articles. All but one of Snip.It's 10-person staff were reported to join Yahoo.

Alike

Mayer made a move to purchase Propeld, the maker of mobile app Alike, which lets users mark nearby venues as "favorites," in February of 2013. After the acquisition, the Alike team moved over to work at Yahoo.

Jybe

In March, Yahoo purchased Jybe, a startup food, event, book, and movie recommendations service that hopes to "help connect people with the world around them." Jybe was founded by three ex-Yahoo employees, who will now re-enter the company fold.

Summly

Last month, Yahoo acquired news-reading app Summly from its 17-year-old founder Nick D'Aloisio. D'Aloisio is working with the company to incorporate Summly's technology, which translates long-form news stories into shorter summaries, into Yahoo's mobile apps.

This week, America's head central banker, Ben Bernanke, gives his economic report card to Congress. At least one president in the Federal Reserve system is saying that this summer the Fed will taper off from its stimulus measures.

Julia Coronado, chief North American economist at BNP Paribas, joins Marketplace Morning Report host David Brancaccio to explain what that could mean for the economy.