June 25, 2009

I'm already sick of Michael Jackson Eulogies. So here's another one.

Seriously, since the announcement came out, every other Facebook post is either a link to a "Michael's dead" article or a YouTube video of Jacko in his prime.

Not that I'm glad he's dead: I'm not. His music is very much interwoven into the tapestry of my life. I stopped what I was doing to watch THRILLER just like everyone did when it came on MTV. He wrote some great stuff, although the last few albums just left me cold. I think he was trying too hard. It wasn't Michael Jackson making music, it was Michael Jackson and 50,000 audio engineers, acoustiticians, psychic mediums, choreographers, stylists, and fashion consultants trying to create a "new paradigm" of entertainement.

Feh.

But what really gets to me is the hype driving these stories.

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times ramps the hysteria up to unbelievable levels with this article:
All due respect to the memories of Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger, Chris Farley, Aaliyah, Selena and the far too many other celebrities who died suddenly, Michael Jackson was in another universe as an entertainer. He has had his health problems over the years, but we had no inkling he was anything but healthy before Thursday afternoon.
"No inkling?" Really? Because as I recall, Michael Jackson looked exactly like this:



This is healthy? Really? Back in July, he was in a wheelchair.

Michael Jackson Pictures: Michael Jackson in poor health

John Lennon actually was in good health, and looked healthy, right up until he was SHOT TO DEATH in BROAD DAYLIGHT.

Heath Ledger was on the brink of an entire new career when he popped the wrong combination of pills. Sure, we saw him obviously hung over, but his nose wasn't falling off of his face.

Natasha Richardson fell into the snow, got up and laughed it off, and was dead the following day.

Phil Hartman was at the peak of his career when his wife shot him dead.

But no, Roeper says we had "no inkling" that Jackson wasn't well.

Michael Jackson's last few albums fell short of expectations, and several planned concerts were "delayed."
"The first four dates of the singer's much-hyped 50-show comeback tour have been postponed, promoters announced Wednesday.

The delays immediately stoked speculation that Jackson's health is poor..."
- NY Daily News, July, 2008
"No inkling?"

What an asshole.

The fact is that Michael Jackson's best work was behind him. But his best work was excellent, and we are fortunate to have it. We're in shock, not because we had "no inkling" that is health was in the crapper, but because we have been ignoring him. In the wake of accusations of pedophilia, in the aftermath of a disastrous documentary, we started to ignore "Jacko." We suddenly realized that a man who named two of his children "Prince Michael" was more of a flake than artisté. Actions that once seemed heroically avant-garde suddenly seemed to be cunningly planned public relations events. We no longer saw him as "aloof," but as "out of touch" or worse, "disassociated."

Michael Jackson may very well be the victim of our adulation, a boy thrust into the limelight and robbed of his childhood. Certainly, we loved his art more than the man. Let's be honest, no one ever really knew who Michael Jackson really was, including the man himself. His early work came from the heart: he sang of things that interested him, of things he wanted to say, of things he was feeling. But over time, his music became calculated. It was a man making music not because he wanted to say something, but because he wanted something to do, something to show he could still do...something.

And that is the real tragedy.


34 comments:

  1. i'm also sick and tired of hearing about micheal jackson he was nut little boys in his bed and hanging a baby over the railing back in 2002. and people worship him give me a break . i watch tv saturday not one news program talked about farrah fawcett which is totally unfair and unjust shame on you.

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  2. Michael's dead?? I haven't heard- when did he die????

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  3. I think you read an early version of Roeper's post. In the version I read, he addressed the rumors and reports about Jackson's ill health, but maintained his death was a shock:

    All due respect to the memories of Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger, Chris Farley, Aaliyah, Selena and the far too many other celebrities who died suddenly, Michael Jackson was in another universe as an entertainer. He has had his health problems over the years, but most of us had no inkling he was experiencing any serious, life-threatening difficulties before Thursday afternoon. (Check the news archives; see if you can find any recent stories saying Jackson was at death’s door.) Yes, we read the reports from time to time about various ailments. God knows we saw the photos and news footage of Jackson in which he looked frail. But Jackson hasn’t looked like a robust, “normal” person in what, 20 years? There was something almost cartoonishly surreal about the man that made it seem like he’d somehow keep going, despite all the rumors and reports about his condition.

    It’s easy to say, “We saw this coming,” after the fact.

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  4. Anonymous (geez, can't you take 2 seconds and make up a label?), I responded to the version of the article I read. Maybe he did alter it, or update it, but that's neither here nor there.

    "Another universe?" Really? Much greater scale, certainly, but "another universe" is more lazy rhetoric from my position. He pushed boundaries, yes. He broke down some barriers, absolutely. But he didn't cure cancer, walk on water, actually raise the dead, or re-invent the technology. He wrote really great songs, he put on really great shows, and he showed that spending money on videos could increase sales for recordings and concerts.

    But saying "it's hindsight" when there have been so many damned stories about his health is specious. Even HE knew he was going to die "before his time," according to no less an authority than his first wife, Lisa Marie. That lawyer certainly isn't surprised: disappointed, but not surprised.

    So yes, I will call anyone who was "shocked" at his death either delusional or an idiot. The writing was clearly on the wall.

    Now, did his death have a greater impact? Sure. He sold more records, he sold across a wider demographic, he was around longer. If you want to say is death has made a greater impact than any since John Lennon, I'd have to agree completely.

    But more shocking? Nothing since Phil Hartman's murder has been more shocking than Natasha Richardson getting up, laughing at her clumsiness, and basically dropping dead from the fall within hours.

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  5. The guy is astronomically overrated. He did about three albums of all new material after Thriller, which wasn't even as good as Off the Wall anyway. Real musical geniuses, like, oh, the Beatles let's say, cranked out as many records in a year as Jackson did in 25. Then there's the other issue. He was a mentally ill, child molesting freak. He's in a better place now.

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  6. Pygmalion: it's interesting you bring up the Beatles, considering than Jackson earned enough money to purchase the rights to their entire song catalog.

    Whatever his faults, he was damned fine entertainer, for a long time.

    Over-hyped? You betcha.

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  7. It's sad that the media wastes precious time reporting on this nonsense, when we have men overseas defending this country. Jackson was a strange man who was preoccupied with little boys. What are they eulogizing?

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  8. I to am sick and tired of hearing, reading and watching CNN waste so much time on MJ. How about showing some up lifiting stories CNN get your head out of the sand

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  9. Amen, brother...

    I found this blog by Googling "I'm so sick of Michael Jackson" so I expect your hit count will soon break orbit as this MJ shite grinds on and on and ON...

    Thanks...

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  10. I also googled "I'm sick of Michael Jackson". Just wanted to make sure it wasn't just me, or that something was wrong with me....

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  11. I am so glad I am not the only one. I loved some of the music he created but I don't understand all of this maddness. He may or may not have been a child molester and at least was inappropriate with children. Why are we allowing this to be forgotten? It is really unacceptable. I bet those kids are not mourning him one bit.

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  12. Thank goodness there are others out there. I love Google!

    I could care less that M Jackson is dead. Frankly, I am sick of the pedastal they are putting him on "all of a sudden". He was a freak and none of us would allow our children to be with him alone over night.

    Why are we not focusing on the soldiers that are losing their lives for freedom? They are more honorable and worth putting up eulogies, versus all this crap for Michael Jackson...

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  13. Make it stop....I want off this Thrill...er ride!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  14. OK, I have had enough of MJ...a few years ago, his family members and celebreties were disowning him for sleeping with little boys and today he is a saint. Yes, he had talent and he made a mark on music but enough is enough. Thanks for listening!

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  15. I don't like his music either,some of the up tempo qnes are ok but it has been a whole day of his ghastly horrid pop puffery ersatz inspiring crap, I hate it, my wife has insisted on blasting this crap on the tv all day, i am tryingh to listen to bach but she just turns up the tv so it bleeds thru. Enuff already~ mommy make it stop!

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  16. is there something wrong with me because i don't like the self appointed king of pop. The media used to portray him as a washed up nut case, now he is the second coming of christ, the first black man on tv, and the greatest entertainer who ever lived, all according to the memeorial service and parroted by cnn reporters. The media has turned 180 degrees for this marketing ploy, nd i wil never believe any thing they say ever again.

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  17. I also googled "sick of Michael Jackson". I cannot believe that people are saying that he was the biggest star ever or that he was bigger than Elvis. Days ago I posted a blog about how Michael Jackson was no where near the star Elvis was because I could see that people were going to make that comparison. It is a real stretch to say that a pedophile child molester drug abuser is the biggest star ever in history and that he has made more impact than anyone in history.

    Please. I am so sick of hearing about how such a freak is supposed to be the new found savior. I am so sick of Michael Jackson.

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  18. I am sooo sick of the MJ coverage. He is just a dead weird man.We all die so he has not done some amazing special thing for Pete's sake. Most of the country is tired of the coverage. When will this boring crap news stop? Even 60% of the bleeding heats on CNNs poll say it is too much.

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  19. Trying to watch something decent on tv today and the MJ eulogy spanned over 17 of my channels. Oy.

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  20. Can we dig him up and kill him again? There wasn't enough on TV the first time around to sate my appetite for pointless media drivel.

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  22. I gree, I'm sick of MJ too. And I hate how people are trying to forget he was accused of child molestation more than once. And this is the ones that made it to the press. Who knows how many boys lives he ruined!!

    Also, now all these black enterteiners are saying what a great person he was to his community. Uhm, last I remember he was trying to avoid being African American in any way possible. He was a self-hater and wanted no part of his race or ethnicity.

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  23. I AM TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT MICHAELJACKSON. PLEASE NO MORE.
    ELVIS PRESLEY WAS THE BEST AND
    THE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL. THERE WAS NO MEDIA COVERAGE OF HIS
    FUNERAL.

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  24. Michael Jackson has been deified to the
    point of media insanity. I was so glad to
    hear Donnie Deutsch complain about this
    on CNBC yesterday. He speaks for me too.

    Jackson is just another human being, who
    happens to have (or have had) some talent
    as a performer. He also had some serious
    unresolved issues that led him to self-
    mutilate his face with excessive plastic
    surgery, to act out very inappropriately
    with children, and to become addicted to
    an assortment of pharmaceutical drugs,
    that ended up killing him.

    What kind of inspiration does THAT offer
    anyone? Why do we idolize that?

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  25. Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, Farah Faucet...I don't care. Yeah, they were stars. I had heard of all of them. So what? I'm supposed to care about them because I knew their names? A child molester is dead. You know, I just can't MAKE myself cry about that. What I'm really sick of is the whiners who think that death somehow demands respect. Farah Faucet, don't care. Billy Mays, glad his loud mouth will soon be off my TV forever. Yes, glad. Deal with it. Michael Jackson, the world is better off with one less freak in it. Just look at his damned face. He PAID doctors to turn him into a freak show. And all this crap about not having a childhood is just that, a load of crap. He was a winy little bitch. There are kids right now getting the crap beaten out of them who will turn out to be damned decent people. Problem with that? Can't speak ill of the dead? Why? A person who dies becomes a dead person. A cop who dies becomes a dead cop. So it stands to reason that a freak who dies becomes a dead freak and, as far as I'm concerned, that's the best kind.

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  26. 10 yrs ago I said MJ should be put in a cage like an animal.
    Today: I apologize for insulting the entire animal kingdom-he is not even fit to be counted among them.
    Al Sharpton is a professional leech.
    His comments at the funeral were racist and demonstrated how willing he is to show his utter ignorance.

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  27. I am glad I am not the only one as well who is sick of hearing about him no matter what he did or didn't do is irrelevant he was just a person and people die. I feel bad for his family and am sorry for their loss however I am FED up with people and the media thinking that these people are more than that just because their job puts them in the media. That fact doesn't make them any more important than the single mother raised a bunch of kids,the person who donates everything for those who are less fortunate, the people who risk their very lives to save us, or point blank it doesn't make them anymore important than the rest of us. Enough already with people/media thinking actors actresses musicians and everyone else in the public eye are MORE IMPORTANT or SPECIAL than us.

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  28. I'm glad another freak is dead. Makes believe there is a God. I think Farah Fawcett must of spoke to God and told his to kill the fucker.

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  29. The man was a pedophile and a predator. he died too well.

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  30. All of yall go STAIGHT TO HELL!! What you are doing is judging. You dont know anything because you was'nt there. You people dont have the right too judge because its not your place. Point out your sins because I know none of yall asses are angels. Kiss Michael Jackson's ass and mine as well. I would bet that everything would have been all good if he had sponsored you a trip to neverland with all expenses paid and spending money on the side or if he had paid medical expenses to one of your sick childeren if you had one. Get a damn life!!!

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  31. "Whatever the autopsy report may say, it was not disease that killed MJ. It was the greed of those who wanted his money. It was an 'irresponsible and heavily biased media', which hounded him incessantly and declared him guilty without a fair trial. It was the skewed race relations in the United States where white pedophiles get away with murder everyday while an innocent black man is subjected to the worst humiliation in his own home by cops wanting to photograph his private parts. But most tragically, it was his own childlike innocence which killed him. For it blinded him to the venalities of human beings that no amount of love or charity can heal."

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  32. it just keeps on going on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on well,you get the point

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  33. for all of you who have just sucked in the media sensationalism over the little boy stuff - why don't you do a bit of research on the matter. I have been as part of a study - yeah I too bought into all the media crap so I say to you look in to it. It was a set up for cash - very American style. Court transcripts are all available online - together with lots of information on all his fine upstanding accusers. check it out - the guy was strange but he was no child molester and it's simply unfair for you to go with what ran in the tabloids. Start you search in wiki before you crucify the man:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_child_sexual_abuse_accusations_against_Michael_Jackson

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