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All Michael Jackson, All the Time
Why so many are fascinated and heartbroken by the death of a pop singer.
We mourn because part of our past just got dimmer. As we get older, memories can fade as easily as photographs. The media barrage of retrospectives brings then back — Jackson Five lunchboxes, songs played at high school dances, sequined gloves as a fashion statement, and the much-hyped premiere of the lengthy premiere of “Thriller” on the still-new MTV channel.
Those of us who feel this nostalgia and experience sadness at Jackson’s passing are not trying to make him out to be anything more than what he was.
There were three distinct Michael Jacksons — the ABC Jackson, the “Thriller” Jackson and the Neverland Jackson. Regardless of what kind of monster lurked inside the Neverland Michael Jackson, the two others left the world with an entertainment legacy, and that’s what so many people are celebrating as they remember him.
Jackson’s death is our generation’s “Where were you?” Like the death of Elvis before this, millions of people will later tell stories about where they were when they heard the news.
If you want to know why more isn’t being made of the fact that he was an alleged pedophile, the answer lies in all those people who make up the 973% jump in CNN’s ratings, interested remembering the Michael who entertained, the Michael who “moonwalked,” the Michael who sang “ABC.”
They don’t want to — right now — tune in to CNN or MTV and see the plastic-faced Michael. They don’t want to see the Michael who put masks over his children’s faces. They know all about what happened at Neverland Ranch — despite his acquittal of child molestation charges — and how his abuse of drugs likely led to his untimely death. Those are not the things they want to remember at this moment; they want to relive the joy his music inspired and the memories attached to the times of their lives when he was popular and successful and adored.
Perhaps what a lot of us are really mourning is the lost potential of Michael Jackson. His death allows those of us to pay our respect to that distant Michael that we lost so long ago, but the presence of the most recent incarnation of Michael Jackson didn’t allow us to mourn.
What is happening now is a form of closure that allows us to celebrate the boy and the boy-like man we loved, before he became a person we no longer knew.
No one is dismissing or ignoring what Michael Jackson became. We are simply mourning the passing of the phenomenon he once was.
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Michele Catalano lives, writes, and takes photographs on Long Island.
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79 Comments
1. David Thomson:I have bad news for everyone: the Michael Jackson tragedy will not disappear anytime in the near future. We will now see a lot of attention paid to the arrests and convictions of a number of his enablers. I would imagine that some physicians will be spending time in prison.
The awful cap and trade legislation passed almost certainly due to Jackson’s death pushing all other news off the front page. We are also hearing less from the protesters in Iran. And who is this Mark Sanford guy? Does anybody now care about his fooling around in Argentina? Wouldn’t it be strange if archeologists study our civilization in a thousand years hence and decide we destroyed ourselves by overreacting to the death of a pop star?
Jun 27, 2009 - 2:52 pm 2. All Michael Jackson, All the Time | Secolul 21 ~ 21st Century:[...] link: All Michael Jackson, All the Time This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Pajamas Media. You can follow any responses to this [...]
Jun 27, 2009 - 2:54 pm 3. Yakavis:Well written article and something to think about. I was born in the 60’s, I was 7 when MJ hit the scene in my town. You’re right, the era will be missed, I miss the Funk era, the Disco era, and the beginning of Hip-hop when the lyrics were clean and fun.
Jun 27, 2009 - 3:16 pm 4. Pogo:What a bunch of hooey. I grew-up in the 60’s and 70’s. Maybe it’s just me but, I never freaked out or thought my “youth” had passed me by when back in the 70’s Elvis died. I can’t remember where I was when John Lennon was murdered. Don’t recall when Ricky Nelson was killed. Not sure where I was when Lynard Skynard’s plane crashed. Two events/examples do stand out for me… I remember where I was and what I was doing when the first space shuttle exploded and of course; where I was and what I was doing on 911.
Jun 27, 2009 - 3:17 pm 5. Marie Claude:even the Chineses are at it :
http://bit.ly/23OmS
Jun 27, 2009 - 3:20 pm 6. KansasGirl:This has become as bad as BO. I keep hoping I’m going to wake up from this nightmare.
Jun 27, 2009 - 3:23 pm 7. Ed Wallis:The death of NAMBLA’s poster boy:
a great distraction for SOBama to “not let go to waste” as good as a “crisis.”
Let’s not let him/them get away with it.
Jun 27, 2009 - 3:44 pm 8. YONAS:Michael Jackson died. for us (non Americans) Elvis presley or john Lennon are someone in USA. MJ was @ everyone heart from the beginning. that’s why everybody is so exaggerating by his death. we must not forget he was THE KING OF POP!
Jun 27, 2009 - 3:51 pm 9. Jones:celebrity worship is one symptom of the dumbing down of america
electing the fool who is now President is another
we are well on our way to ‘idiocracy’
I say this in all sincerity
Jun 27, 2009 - 3:53 pm 10. Will:What a bunch of helpless,worthless,idiots so many people have become.They idolize a pervert as if he was a god.
Jun 27, 2009 - 3:54 pm 11. Oh, bother:Catalano wrote, “Jackson’s death is our generation’s ‘Where were you?’” Good heavens, I hope not.
I remember where I was when I learned JFK had been shot; both shuttle disasters (I heard the second shuttle explode as I sat at my computer), and when the second plane went into the World Trade Center. I was driving on a freeway for that one. I’m still surprised I didn’t crash.
Pogo, KansasGirl and Jones are right. We are becoming a silly people.
Jun 27, 2009 - 4:05 pm 12. Blackwater:Who knows. I grew up watching his concerts and music videos like everyone else over the age of 20 but I never worshipped the dude. And what he’s done with his life for the last several years killed any small amount of admiration I ever had for that weirdo. Not to mention his homosexual pedophilia charges. The man was an utter freak who finally was put out of his own misery. Everyone going berserk over his death – including members of Congress – further proves to me that most people are complete and utter morons who idol worship anyone famous like a bunch of peasents groveling before royalty. I never got why a lot of Americans go crazy when members of the British royal family visit as well. I don’t know about everyone else, but hatred for the idea of being born into privledge and especially the very idea of royalty was ingrained in me ever since I was a little kid. Yet people still go nuts in America every time the queen visits. I hate to say something so cliche but most people are just sheep. How do you think Obama got elected?
Jun 27, 2009 - 4:07 pm 13. David Thomson:“We are becoming a silly people.”
The people of the West are overall becoming a silly people. Winston Churchill’s death resulted in only a half day of mourning. Great Britain’s citizens honored the great man during his funeral service in the early hours—and then spent the rest of the day taking care of their normal business. However, the rather ordinary and non-heroic Princess Di’s death prompted roughly three days of mourning! Many apparently can no longer distinguish between celebrities and true heroes. Michael Jackson’s tragic end deserves no more than a moment of silence. He was just a great entertainer. That simply doesn’t rate all this attention.
Jun 27, 2009 - 4:19 pm 14. Fred Suggs:Jackson will end up having less musical influence than Elvis, the Beatles, Rolling Stones or even Chuck Berry. The MSM seems to think that Usher and Justin Timberlake represent a musical legacy. Jackson was a good song and dance man. He could write catchy pop tunes, but no wonder, he literally grew up in the Motown studios, surrounded by great songwriters and musicians. BTW, if you note, he was never able to replicate the success of the two albums he made with Quincy Jones. Are any of his lyrics memorable, let alone deep, clever, or meaningful?
Bob Dylan likes to call himself a “song and dance man”, perhaps some deliberate false modesty. Has anything Jackson written approached even Dylan’s lesser works? Jackson, hailed by his fans as a supremely gifted talent, was a successful entertainer and performing artist – the Motown 25th show was electric – but that’s about the extent of his talent.
I’m 54. When MJ first gained fame, the Jackson 5 were essentially Motown’s boy band. The role of wunderkind at the label was already taken by Stevie Wonder. This was the late 1960s early 1970s and by then “underground” FM rock was in full psychedelic flower. Compared to those bands, the Jackson 5 were, let’s face it, lame, and pretty much bubblegum music.
Ultimately, Jackson will be more significant in terms of commerce than art.
Jun 27, 2009 - 4:26 pm 15. The Albatross:The media coverage was way over the top… and they missed the ball… any first responder knows that you can’t do CPR on a BED… the 911 operator had to tell them to put him on the floor… aw come on. Even in the hoslpital if somebody codes you use the headboard from the bed and slide it under the person. If the doctor was giving him CPR on a bed, he was doing it wrong…. just sayin’.
Jun 27, 2009 - 4:27 pm 16. neocon hippie:People who were children in the 1980’s are not baby boomers by any stretch of the definition.
Jun 27, 2009 - 4:37 pm 17. whataloadacrap08:Why? Because it’s a free freak show, that’s why! People love looking at the freaks in the circus. They may tut-tut and say oh the poor little thing, but they still ante up for a peek at the freak. And with MJ, it ain’t just his freaky old dead plastic a$$, but his whole freakin’ family is part of the freak show too. And those “die hard” fans, my Lord they all belong in an asylum!
PS: Personally, I’m hoping they leak the autopsy pix somewhere real soon, I want to see his face without the twelve pounds of makeup he continually pasted on his mug to pass for human!
Jun 27, 2009 - 4:37 pm 18. ribby:Pogo and neocon hippie you’re missing the point. I was born in 1964 (the tail end of the boomers). I was a child of the 70’s and the 80’s. I graduated from high school in 1982 when I was 17 years old; the year Thriller came out. Okay, I was a teenager, but I think you get the point. Of course, Pogo, you’re not going to have fond memories of Elvis dying. In 1977 when I was 13 I remember the day he died and couldn’t figure out all the fuss. What this article is saying is that all those folks standing outside MJ’s house are the same types of folks that stood at the gates of Graceland on the August day in ‘77. Not the SAME folks, but the same types of folks. I think is point is right on. When I heard MJ died, I immediatley recalled all the fond memories of my youth and Thriller (I wore out 4 casettes of that album on my new Sony Walkman)and the MTV videos; it made me nostalgic and sad. I wasn’t thinking of Neverland MJ. I’m still not.
Jun 27, 2009 - 5:01 pm 19. Kim:Michele –
You nailed it.
Great essay.
I was mourning the “loss” of Michael Jackson since somewhere between the “Thriller” and “Bad” albums, after following his career from 1969.
It’s hard for folks to understand, I guess.
Jun 27, 2009 - 5:05 pm 20. hangnail:MJ was a pervert. now let him RIP in hell!
Jun 27, 2009 - 5:07 pm 21. Immanuel Goldstein:I remember when President Kennedy was shot. I had just finished gym class at high school and was sitting with some other students on a tubular railing waiting for the bell to ring so that I could go to my next class. All of a sudden this kid came running out of the gym yelling “Hey, everyone, Kennedy’s been shot!” Some one said, “Where?” He said, “In the butt!” You don’t forget news like that very easily.
Jun 27, 2009 - 5:21 pm 22. LeighB:Well, there seem to be two stories to choose from, MJ and Obama. I’ll take MJ please!
Jun 27, 2009 - 5:24 pm 23. pma95:This perv’s death is just the beginning. The whole family is a bunch of publicity hounds and this gives them a chance to drag the whole affair out as long as possible. jackson was a pedo, pure and simple, and his death should be just a passing note, but unfortunately, it won’t be. Pretty sad commentary on our society.
Jun 27, 2009 - 5:31 pm 24. David W. Lincoln:There is a sizable portion of the world’s populace
that take their cues from the MSM. Why? Because it is too hard for them to think, so they let others think for them.
When that is combined with the MSM delivering what it thinks the audience wants, in concert with what makes sense to them; nuance and innuendo are given free rein.
It was like that for Diana, the mother of Prince William and Prince Harry. But, it was far from that for people of substance like Mother Teresa,
Jun 27, 2009 - 5:34 pm 25. David:Pope John Paul II, and Ronald Reagan, because it
is easier to communicate sizzle, rather than substance.
There’s something seriously and fundamentally wrong with people who go nuts over the death of a twitchy pervert.
Jun 27, 2009 - 5:35 pm 26. neverquit:He owed what? $500-$600 million, and then all of a sudden, he’s dead? I’m not surprised by that.
If I was a musician, which I am not, I would not marry any of these Presley girls….I mean really, Elvis and Michael – - Priscilla Presley – Lisa Marie Presley……
Somebody has to say this stuff.
Jun 27, 2009 - 5:37 pm 27. jimpres:Because he was adored like someone else in the US. He sang well and spent well. The other talks well and sends way beyond our means.
Jun 27, 2009 - 5:47 pm 28. pma95:…and remember something else…CNN has no audience because of their rabid liberal stance on all things political, so a boost in their viewership of 975% wouldn’t necessarily mean many people watched.
Jun 27, 2009 - 6:14 pm 29. Tony R.:Until such time as the big conspiracy theory surrounding his death kicks in, poor old MJ will just be another dead celeb.
But fear not – the nuts will come up with something soon enough. Was it the Israelis? Was it GW Bush? Was it the CIA from the grassy knoll?
Who really killed Michael Jackson? Come on dumb-f*cks…you tarnished the victoms of 9-11 with your nonsence. Diana was “assasinated”…..let us all hear what dribbling horse manure you can come up with for a once brilliant artist who went insane 20 years ago?
Jun 27, 2009 - 6:24 pm 30. Jim Baker:Well, now the media has its negro pop music icon to revere. The 24 hour news channels have forgotton all about Iran and its problems. The centerpiece of a musical freak show sells more commercials than does another rigged election in the middle east. The Ayadamntollya should pay attention to this, and I bet he is. What a statement about this whole sorry culture we live in. The Mullahs can’t possibly hate this country more than I do right now.
Jun 27, 2009 - 6:30 pm 31. John:I just read that Burger King is doing a memorial hamburger promotion to eulogize MJ. They will be putting 50 year old meat inside 8 year old buns.
As Rome burns.
Jun 27, 2009 - 6:40 pm 32. Rich:I hear that Amazon is having a Michael Jackson sale.
All boys pants are half off.
Jun 27, 2009 - 7:42 pm 33. Ellen K:Michael Jackson was very talented but very troubled. His unexplained death is sad, but not the end of the world. I have a problem with the hyperbole applied to him as “the best musical performer ever.” Really? There’s Elvis, a lot of people thought he was great. There’s Nat King Cole, a lot of people liked him. There’s Bobby Darrin, Jim Morrison, just to name a few. If you go back a ways, Mozart was the original pop star, playing at the real palace by the age of five, writing his first musical works at eight. I realize that many things MJ did were revolutionary, but this deliberate blurring of news with gossip is bothering me. And while I hate to throw conspiracies out here, don’t you kind of wonder why Pelosi didn’t want to delay the vote on cap and trade until after the media had finished it’s feeding frenzy in Hollywood? It’s just sad.
Jun 27, 2009 - 7:49 pm 34. matt:MJ will always be my idol
Jun 27, 2009 - 7:56 pm 35. Meryl:The only time I deliberately paid attention to Michael Jackson was the year he did the halftime Super Bowl show. His entrance was this:
He was dramatically revealed in floodlights, standing midstage, with his gloved hand thrust straight up, head bowed down to his chest–just standing there. He stood that way for about 5 minutes–head down, fist straight up–as the audience screamed and screamed and screamed.
Made my skin crawl and made it my first and last experience of this idol. I guarantee you, those people WERE worshipping. And he was accepting it. Absolutely skincrawling sick.
I have not watched one story on his life or death.
God made remotes with an off button for a reason. The whole country has not ground to a halt because of his death. (Anyway, Soetero is taking care of grinding the country to a halt)
Jun 27, 2009 - 7:58 pm 36. elvis:This is a sign of the demise of the West.
Jun 27, 2009 - 8:12 pm 37. Pat J:I am reminded so much of lyrics from Neil Young’s “Rust Never Sleeps.” Specifically, “The king is gone but he’s not forgotten. Is this the story of Johnny Rotten. It’s better to butn out because rust never sleeps. The king is gone but he’s not forgotten.”
Jun 27, 2009 - 8:28 pm 38. Realist:# 9 Jones you are absolutely right this orgasmic grief being spewed out by the MSM over the death of a drug addicted, child molesting, serial plastic surgery junky Jackson who had morphed himself from a good looking black guy in to an ugly weird looking middle aged white woman is just a symptom of how far the left wing, multi culti, moral equivalence, LGTRG loving, anti semitic, Islamophile Moonbats have dumbed down the Western Nations. The MSM is already in complete control of these morons which is why we get orgasmic unending Jackson grief and totally uncritical Obambi worship all the time from them.
Jun 27, 2009 - 8:53 pm 39. misanthropicus:What really has me in stitches is watching these hard line Black Supremacists like Sharpton in the USA spew grief over Jackson who REJECTED blacks by turning himself in to a middle aged white woman.
While this histeria around Michael Jackson’s death is contemptible, unfortunately it is genuine, and even intelligent people seem to have surrended their common sense and now reminsce about their 70-s LP-s – my goodness, why bother to spend more than a few seconds contemplating the grotesque end of a buffoonish character?
Jumping from hotel to hotel, from overdose to overdose, from enema to enema, from lawsuit to lawsuit, from face lifts to facelifts, from… heavens! Heavens!
An unintelligent, vaguely gifted performer oversold as a robotic marionette, this guy has changed lives? His grabbing his crotch has touched millions? Is this all about life?
Maybe this is the answer – those who are rueing Jackson’s death simply… have no lives of their own!
This American cultural milieu has deteriorated in such a degree that (real) lives are felt as valid only if attuned to someone popstar’s haircut, erections or boobs.
Crying for Michael Jackson! What an emptiness -
Jun 27, 2009 - 9:26 pm 40. Cheeky Wombat:Music Icon????? don’t make me puke. He may have been cute when he sang with his brothers but that was a looooong time ago. He was an un-natural freak and a pedophile. Little boys can now rest easy
Jun 27, 2009 - 9:26 pm 41. TomF:The real question is when will the MJ sightings start?
Jun 27, 2009 - 10:13 pm 42. Bad Karma:Yep, passing of a star, blah blah, epic career, blah blah. This is all well and good, but for someone to be so totally wrapped up with anyone in the entertainment industry is beyond me. To show how self centered the media and entertainment world is, NOT a word about Fawcett. Hmmm, why is that? Is it because people worship those constantaly surrounded by controversy regardless? Looking at all the reporting the last two days and the cult following for those in the entertainment field, I would say yes. Fawcett appears to have passed, not of her own doing, different story with Jackson though, yet he’s set up on a pedistal. True, he did make quite a mark in history, and now he’s gone. I for one actually liked some of his music, now with all the media coverage, different story. You know what, we really are tired of hearing about him 24/7, no really, we are. Sad what he went through, now he’s gone so let’s get back to reality and how were going to get screwed by the cap and trade, healthcare “inititive” and the porkulous (aka stimulus). This has been a perfect opportunity for Barry and the gang. While everyone is enthralled with Jackson, these cowards we elected are attempting to hose us over.
Jun 27, 2009 - 10:31 pm 43. Carole:I only wanted to say that I read all that you responded to, and have to agree with your opinion, now can we get back to what is important?
Jun 27, 2009 - 10:45 pm 44. Marie Claude:in the meanwhile, exit the green wave, where are their voice ?
Jun 27, 2009 - 11:16 pm 45. Caestal:It’s a shame that the folks who claim they don’t trust the mainstream media apparently actually do trust them, at least enough to convict a man based on their reporting (and of course, the National Enquirer… glad to know they are on your side). He might well have been a pedophile and a number of other things; he could just as easily have been a victim of some folks who knew that he had deep pockets and would settle a lawsuit, rather than having it drag on for years and years (as such things do) only to have him be convicted in the court of public opinion (as he was).
Jun 27, 2009 - 11:30 pm 46. conservababe:Personally, I don’t know. I have no direct knowledge; I suspect none of the posters on this thread do either. I do know his music reasonably well. He was a good musician, a good entertainer.
Wombat, careful there, you pretty much just said you though a little boy was cute. Given the things being spouted here, that could be a dangerous thing to say. :-p
A man has died. If we can’t follow the “innocent until proven guilty” rule, let’s all pretend we are civilized, and follow the basic rules of civilized people: Don’t speak ill of the recently departed.
Rest in Peace.
Fred is right. Exactly.
Jun 28, 2009 - 12:48 am 47. alamendah:Before Dying Michael Jackson Have Time To Invite Us
Jun 28, 2009 - 2:28 am 48. Libertyship46:Who cares? Another overpaid, drug addicted, spoiled, overly eccentric (bordering on insane), Hollywood pedophile has died. Like I said, who cares? What disturbs me is the amount of media coverage his death is getting. Just like Lady Dianna, a woman who didn’t do much more than go to parties and get photographed on beaches, America now values the lives of celebrities way more than true American heroes, like John McCain, Teddy Roosevelt, or General David Petraeus. But those true heroes or “Oh so boring,” right? Who needs them when we watch train wrecks like Michael Jackson or Britney Spears acting like perverted mental patients? It is a shame that someone like Petraeus doesn’t get a fraction of the coverage Jackson ever got, yet Petraeus is responsible for only “minor” things like single-handedly turning around a losing war in Iraq. One day Petraeus will be as large a figure in American history as U.S. Grant or Eisenhower, yet you don’t hear much about the guy today unless he’s testifying before a Senate Committee in Washington, and even then you’ll probably only see a brief film clip about it on the news. But, hey, when Michael Jackson was on trial for raping a kid or Britney Spears goes out without her underwear, it’s headline news. This is a really sad state of affairs for America and the rest of the world. About 100 years ago, actors and actresses were considered no better than vagrants, and rightfully so. In those days generals, admirals, inventors, explorers, some politicians (like Teddy Roosevelt), and barons of industry were held up as role models for Americans to look up to. Were they all saints? Of course not, but they accomplished a hell of a lot more than a Michael Jackson or a Paris Hilton, celebrities who were simply famous for being famous, which is an outrage and a shame. No wonder so few good people want to enter public service and no wonder so few inventors (people on a par with Thomas Edison) get so little publicity. Achievements rarely sell newspapers and fill the air time on cable news channels. But acting weird, doing drugs, being a sexual deviant, and being an overly pampered, over paid celebrity that’s done nothing but sing a few songs, well now that’s a role model we should all admire, right? How pathetic.
Jun 28, 2009 - 4:46 am 49. genghis kohn:In answer to your question ‘why are so many fascinated…..?’: It is because the the IQ of the typical pop culture ‘enthusiast’ has slipped below his/her belt size. Or, as Forest Gump would say, stupid is as stupid does.
Jun 28, 2009 - 4:58 am 50. vivo:People believe what their lurid minds want to believe. Reality is out of reach. Opinions abound. Fantasy becomes reality . . .
Jun 28, 2009 - 5:00 am 51. Pogo:Perhaps someone already made mention but… just you watch. Soon, someone will start reporting MJ’s death and actually bring up all the Perv stuff he was involved in and in detail. Just you wait… those people who “dare” speak the truth will be called Haters. Anyone want to take a bet?
Jun 28, 2009 - 6:00 am 52. Mo:I cannot claim to be a huge MJ fan like some were. But his music was definitely part of my childhood and teen years. I didn’t care for much of his music after ‘Thriller’. And I could not bear to look at even photos of him in later years. What he did to himself was ghastly.
I am also not one who would go put flowers at his home or visit or wail and cry or do any of the extreme things some people will do. Nor do I excuse his allegations of child abuse or make light of that.
All of that said I confess his death has hit me quite hard, and for all the reasons you described here. Thank you for putting into words what I, as of yet, have been unable to do.
Jun 28, 2009 - 6:26 am 53. Will:They’re a bunch of dumb wacko sheep.
Jun 28, 2009 - 6:29 am 54. Sebastian Shaw:The media glare into the oddity of Michael Jackson’s cult of personality he himself created is ridiculous. The 24 hour coverage is too much. I turned off the channels devoting to this nonsense.
Jun 28, 2009 - 6:47 am 55. Sun:The overwhelming reaction to his death has an uncomplicated explanation: he had many, many fans. Since I don’t know him personally, but only know about his private life, good or bad, through the media, I don’t actually know anything else I could intelligently comment upon. I enjoy about a dozen of his songs very much.
Jun 28, 2009 - 7:23 am 56. savage24:For the love of God,I cannot He was understand why anybody would want to make an idol of a pedophile. He was an abuser of children and you can’t get any lower then that. He is dead and good ridance.
Jun 28, 2009 - 8:07 am 57. Immanuel Goldstein:Alamendah: What the hell kind of gibberish is that? If you can’t post in English, don’t post at all.
Jun 28, 2009 - 8:54 am 58. Raita Outinen:There was one who changed the music, he was called the Genius, and ALL the singers you have mentioned took a little peace of his style.I am talking about Ray Charles. You have mentioned here almost everybody but him. Didn’t he
Jun 28, 2009 - 9:20 am 59. Joe Bison:abuse everything, drugs, women, et cetera, except his MUSIC. He died 6 years ago, I wonder what, if anything, did you write about him… For God’s sake, let it be, MJ is gone, like all of us will.Respect!
On the bright side the Elvis is still alive
Jun 28, 2009 - 9:45 am 60. genghis kohn:writers can rejuvenate their careers and we
can sell commemorative postage stamps.
ps: They saved his nose and will clone int. be patient, fans.
Jun 28, 2009 - 11:17 am 61. myth buster:Now let’s be fair. Michael Jackson didn’t choose to become albino; he had an illness that resulted in a loss of skin pigmentation. Furthermore, people assumed that Michael Jackson abused young boys, and I admit that it sounds plausible, given Jackson’s eccentricities, but no one ever actually proved it. Was he creepy? Yes, but being creepy does not necessarily mean he was a pedophile. The mothers of his children couldn’t even muster evidence to strip him of custody.
Jun 28, 2009 - 11:55 am 62. Delia:Make of it what you will:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-513206/My-life-mother-Michael-Jacksons-children-Debbie-Rowe.html
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/michaeljackson/0215051jackson1.html
Jun 28, 2009 - 12:56 pm 63. Delia:More [NSFW]:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0625091jackson1.html
Jun 28, 2009 - 12:59 pm 64. Elle:Blah blah blah about his music. Michael Jackson did exactly as he wished. His lavish and ostentatious lifestyle finally outstripped even his earnings leaving him vulnerable to his creditors. His refusal to deal with self-destructive habits such as drugs, financial irresponsibility, and sleeping with kids left him vulnerable to illness, bankruptcy, and ridicule. He chose to remain an infant long after infancy was gone. He was, quite literally, terminally self-indulgent. For me,
Jun 28, 2009 - 1:37 pm 65. Steve Skubinna:the object lesson of his life obliterates any value in his performances.
So what you are saying – albeit not explicitly – is that our collective reaction to Jackson’s death is really one of mass narcissism? I certainly won’t argue with that.
One thing I really dislike is seeing his death put into the “where were you” category of the JFK assassination, the Challenger explosion, the attack on Pearl Harbor. I vaguely recall when Elvis died, but it was barely a blip on the radar for me. The only reason I so clearly remember hearing about John Lennon was because I at first thought the news was the setup for a sick joke. Kurt Cobain, River Pheonix, John Belushi – my response to their deaths was “what an ass – how could he throw everything away like that?”
Some people matter to us and to history, some don’t. I think in the years to come, once the hysteria fades, people will look back on Jackson’s career and think “good showman” and little more. His influence on music? In the long run, nil. Moonwalking and crotch grabs are not the landmark innovations some think they are.
Jun 28, 2009 - 1:49 pm 66. RebeccaH:In a hundred years… or even three decades from now… who, beyond a few music historians, are going to remember Michael Jackson? He was a talented singer and dancer who made his mark in a small window of time, and stained even that with a legacy of tragedy and eccentricity. Far more memorable is the current farce being enacted in Washington DC.
Jun 28, 2009 - 2:20 pm 67. BSdetector:The empty worshiping the empty.
Jun 28, 2009 - 7:03 pm 68. Wiredog:MJs death surprised me but did not affect me. He was talented but I wasn’t a fan. However When Jerry Garcia died i ‘95 I mourned him by listening to “Europe ‘72″ on my walkman while drinking beer and mowing my lawn.
Jun 28, 2009 - 9:05 pm 69. vivo:The contradictions among the bloggers show nobody knows what they’re talking about.
Jun 28, 2009 - 10:11 pm 70. Realist:Can someone please explain the difference between BUYING non genetic children and SLAVERY because its patently obvious that the children Michael Jackson BOUGHT have nothing whatsoever genetically to do with him. Also why should Micheal Jackson’s family have first call on adopting and taking care of these PURCHASED SLAVE children and not their genetic parents. Please don’t give me BS about look how he loved them and took care of them either they were prized PURCHASE possessions thats all/ Just because you are treated well does not take away your PURCHASED slave status.
Jun 28, 2009 - 10:47 pm 71. caestal:“because its patently obvious that the children Michael Jackson BOUGHT”
Jun 29, 2009 - 1:45 am 72. Charlie on PA Tpk:Now that’s interesting. Could you cite sources and evidence on that, or is that just you trying to start a new rumour?
Putting aside the absurd behavior, the accusations and the rest, I have a problem not with Michael Jackson, per se, but rather with this group mourning that seems to be the routine when someone famous dies.
Elvis Presley, John Lennon, the Challenger, and even Randy Paush — people act as if they knew those who passed away, and not just to say ‘Oh yeah, I knew his work’ or “Yes, I followed their career” but as if they *personally* knew the people, have had them over for dinner or what have you.
How can people become so emotionally attached to celebrities? Openly weeping, emotionally spent and depressed, sometimes physically ill, mourning the death of a person (with all due respect) who wouldn’t know them in a crowd.
Maybe I’ve had a hard life: I’ve seen too much illness and death in the people in my own life – family and friends – to get emotionally worked up over the death of a musician or other celebrity.
Jun 29, 2009 - 5:54 am 73. physics geek:I’m old enough to remember watching the Ed Sullivan show with my grandmother. I was watching the night the Jackson Five showed up to sing/dance ABC. Let’s just say that the little front guy kind of captured my heart that night.
I watched him grow into a young man and, with the release of Off the Wall, he finally hit the big time as a solo artist. A couple of years later, Thriller came out and Michael Jackson hit legendary pop status. His next two albums were pretty good, too, but people finally started to notice his face’s continued, umm, evolution. And then really icky stuff appeared, at which point I finally asked myself: When did it all go so horribly wrong?
I know that some people are angry about people eulogizing someone whose final years were, to use Jonah Goldberg’s word, tragic. While I cannot blank that part of his life out (and rightfully so), I’ll always remember him as that smiling, singing, dancing young man on the Ed Sullivan show, someone whose considerable talents onstage were only eclipsed by his big, happy smile.
Jun 29, 2009 - 6:43 am 74. Greg:Has Obama decided to give Michael a national holiday yet? You know because he’s ‘of color’ who are so under-represented i holidays….
Personally I never was much of a MJ fan. I thought ‘man in the mirror’ was a good song. But to me he always was bubble-gum, manufactured, music. Spears, N-Sync, Menudo, New Kids on the Block, etc… Mass-produced music ‘legends’. Talented – yes but not a music ‘legend’.
I think he could well have been what he was accused of. But I’m not going to definately say he did-or-didn’t. I don’t know enough about it and the media is entirely unreliable in this. He was strange, creepy even, but his life and probably his death were the results of his own choices.
The worship he is getting now is rather disgusting. The BET awards (which I didn’t watch – can you imagine a WHITE entertainment awards?) the National News Coverage – for an entertainer?
Jun 29, 2009 - 7:09 am 75. Dennis:>Not sure where I was when Lynard Skynard’s plane crashed.
I’m a child of the 60’s as well (am again by golly
Who was “Lynard Skynard”?
Jun 29, 2009 - 7:55 am 76. Byron Dickens:A bunch of loosers are carrying on like it was their own mother who died. A bunch of loosers who have no life of their own and have to live viscerally through others.
Jun 29, 2009 - 3:41 pm 77. Realist:Not only is the Plastic One not the biological father of ANY of his children he did not adopt them either they were just POSSESSIONS and nothing more than bought and paid for SLAVES.
Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe ‘are not biological parents of any of his children’
UK Daily Mail 30th June 2009
Last updated at 5:17 PM on 30th June 2009
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The fallout from a custody row over Michael Jackson’s three children intensified today after fresh claims that neither Jackson nor ex-wife Debbie Rowe are the biological parents of any of the children.
Jackson also never filed any papers to formally adopt any of the children, according to U.S. media reports today.
Rumours have long circulated about the true parentage of Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and Prince Michael II (or Blanket), 7.
Divorced: Jackson and Debbie Rowe divorced in 1999 after three years of marriage. Rowe gave birth to the singer’s eldest two children
Divorced: Jackson and Deborah Rowe separated in 1999 after three years of marriage
Today TMZ.com, which broke the news of Jackson’s death to the world, claimed that ‘multiple sources deeply connected to the births’ had told the website Jackson was not the biological father of any of the children – and Rowe was not their biological mother.
Instead she acted as a surrogate mother for Prince Michael and Paris – and was ‘paid well’ for her services, according to the website.
Five years ago it was claimed that Rowe was artificially inseminated by an anonymous donor before giving birth to Prince Michael and Paris.
Blanket was born to an unnamed surrogate mother. His surrogate mother, thought to be from Europe, has never been identified and the box for the mother’s name on the legal petition was marked ‘none’.
The paternity of all three children has been questioned in the past.
Concerns: Michael’s father Joe Jackson suspects foul play was involved in his son’s death
Michael’s father Joe Jackson may have been cut out of his son’s will
TMZ claimed documents outlining the birth arrangements for all three children do exist. No such documents proving or disproving their biological parentage have ever emerged into the public domain, however.
Jackson never filed any papers to formally adopt any of the children, according to TMZ.
The website did not attribute a source for the adoption claim, saying simply: ‘We’re told at the time the kids were born there was no third party whom he believed would try and claim custody. For some reason, Jackson never thought Debbie Rowe would mount a custody challenge.’
Jun 30, 2009 - 12:16 pm 78. Kenny:Calling Jackson a pedophile after he was acquitted is plain wrong .HIs brilliance as a songwriter and worldwide poularity cannot be dismissed.Overcoming the child star stigma and being Black in a White society.The man recently sold 750,000 tickets in four hours.There is not enough space in this box to list his achieviements and folks on here are wondering why the media coverage is so intense.The fact that his own country mocked and belittled him all these years is in print and on tape and will be to our countries eternal shame.
Jul 5, 2009 - 2:27 am 79. Jana:THIS ARTICLE TOTALLY SPEAKS FOR THE 70′S/80′S KIDS! To us, its not an argument of social relevance to the appropriate reaction or percentage of news coverage. Its a personal reflection on perhaps the biggest influence in our childhood. We mourn, reflect and continually discuss because we suddenly realize our icon who brought such happy times and inspiration growing up, obviously didn’t get enough in return. Maybe we even feel guilty , for letting the media tear him apart at every turn and realizing we have grown up to be part of a society that wouldn’t nurture and prosper such a talented, big hearted man. We ate up all the good parts and threw away the core.
Jul 10, 2009 - 1:09 pm