| The man in the mirror. 06.27.09 It's one of those things that you will always remember where you were when you heard. Just like our parents will never forget when John Lennon was killed. Our grandparents remember where they were when they found out Elvis Presley was dead. Five, ten, twenty-five years from now.. when we hear those first opening notes of Billie Jean or Thriller... we will always remember the moment when we learned that Michael Jackson had died. When I will take a moment to recall how I heard, I will remember Kristi waking me from a nap with it. We had slept through all the drama of it and by the time we woke up, it had already been announced. I will recall sitting on the couch watching CNN in stunned silence. I'll remember the disgust I felt when they showed a picture of him in the ambulance with tubes down his throat. I will remember how bizarre and surreal it all felt. I've been seeing a lot of terribly uncouth jokes, if you could call them that. All the same pedophilia jabs, plastic surgery nicks - the same old things. And it really just apauls me. I figure you can think what you'd like about him, sure. But this is the way I see it: Obviously the relationships he had were inappropriate. But none of us knows for sure the truth, and to make that the center of attention and this juncture is just in poor taste. It's not our place to judge him. Because in the end of it all, Michael Jackson was someone's father, son, brother, friend. And that - if nothing else - should be respected. I'll admit, I was never more than a casual fan. My childhood memories aren't hinged on Thriller - but there certainly are some. Beautiful, loved people are lost every day. But this is the sort of event that is felt globally by every single person. People will call it "the day that music died." After all, that's what they said when Elvis and Lennon died. The death of Michael Jackson is something that culturally cataclysmic. The landscape of entertainment (I say "entertainment" because his impact reaches far beyond just music) is what it is now because of what he did. The last ten years weren't the best for him. They were full of controversy and allegations and strange behaviour. So filled that most forgot the thrill of seeing him Moonwalk or seeing the full Thriller video the first time. But that is what everyone will remember him for. Because the music didn't die when he did. It will live on forever in his fans and in the new artists that emerge. His influence is now woven through every fabric of pop culture and entertainment. As for me, I'll remember Michael Jackson for what he really was. A true artist and someone who was full of love who just wanted to make the world happy. rewind|forward |
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