It's all over the everywhere, but I just felt like it was worth mentioning here, too. Michael Jackson was a supreme talent and dealt with a tremendous amount of pain. He made many critically bad choices over the years, but it's impossible for me to not still respect his talent and imagination.

Previously:

Image: Bijioo Update: This is heartbreaking. And it's apparently a Pepsi commercial. (via Anil Dash)

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sunnymaz62

R.I.P Michael Jackson
you are fantastic talent and you will always live on in hearts throughout the world
may you find peace at last x x
Anonymous

I can’t get it in my head ! :(
Anonymous

I always wondered why I never heard anyone comment on his obvious psychological issues. He wasn’t malicious or anything. He was extremely messed up, but never got help he needed.

I don’t condone his actions one iota. But, considering what I’ve heard his childhood must have been like, I’m not surprised at his adulthood. But, he needed help in a big way. I was always sad that this didn’t seem to be anyone’s focus.
SeattlePete

Re: They come in threes.

There were a few hours this afternoon, after hearing about Fawcett, that I was on a Vigoda death-watch. Then, out of nowhere comes MJ. Dodged another one Abe…
WalterBillington

@114 … erm, is there an insider thing going on here? I’d hate that, it would look geeky.

Otherwise, your abstraction is one or two levels beyond my capacities or cultural knowledge.

I’d love you to clarify.

…

It might be this – I didn’t say racist, I said bigot. And bigotry means adherence to a belief, or rejection of other persepectives, based on some or other prejudice, prediliction or desire. That is to say, in the absence of evidence.

Ahhhh …. evidence. Nasty little fact of life there. Evidence. Not suspician, “ideas”, media proof, gossip, chat, boasting, braggard’s words, not idle chat or lovers’ whispers. Evidence means there is something solid, irrefutable, undeniable.

And it isn’t here, is it? It may emerge. But it may not – my position is – I don’t know.

And frankly, I find it despicable and disgusting that people shove this man down in the absence of evidence.

So the cycle goes on. Denial, bigotry, denial, bigotry. Narrow perspectives, denial, bigotry.

I’m so bored. Stiff. Reflect on your own idle uselessness and lack of contribution to the intellectual or civil nature of the society we live in.
WalterBillington

Ilove controversial arguments.

But watch the audience at Motown 25th held rapt by his iconic performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VASYhabHkM

Note the following: 1 spotlight, 1 performer, repeated dance sequences, a set far more spartan than even America’s got talent. But the entire world has seen this, and remembers it.

It’s pure mastery of the performing arts, and unrepeatable. No-one can manage this.

@95 ever heard of a Miranda right? A legal system? Innocent until proven guilty?

Maybe he paid them off to silence damning witness statements. Maybe what they had to say was simply so incandescent, so indicative, that he didn’t want it said, knowing full well the avenue it would take. Maybe he’s a mad genius who delighted in the company of children. Maybe he wanted to abuse them. None of us actually know.

Would I have left my kids alone with him? Of course not, as his behaviour points in that direction. But that’s not proof – that’s caution. After the 1st case in the early 90′s, we have to colour every subsequent victim and family with the knowledge of the amount of money to be made, which makes anyone who left their children in his charge every bit as suspicious as him.

Enjoy life as a bigot. Smash another beer on the tv.
Anonymous

R.i.p MJ

Very sad when we fond out you passed away hope the angles up there look after you because you were the king off off pop everone loves you we will all miss you mj.
Sleep tight take caree up there .x
Anonymous

i met michael 6days before he died i miss him dealy, i wish he was still alive, i love him, he will allways be my hero 4ever and ever. I LOVE YOU MICHAEL !
Tavie

Rest in peace, Captain Eo.
(I prefer to remember him this way.)
Anonymous

If it walks, talks and acts like a pedophile, it probably is. You don’t pay millions in settlements if your innocent. Christ…the guy even had an amusement park and a zoo on his property. I’m thinking that’s more effective than candy.
Ian_McLoud

I remember being 2 years old when my mom would dance around the foyer to Thriller, holding me in her arms.

This is sad but it is also a relief given how horrible it seemed his life had become. I do think he was a sick man, a pedophile. I also do think he was an amazing talent.

That being said, I guess he decided it was time to just Beat It…. beat it, beat it, beat it….
IWood

#34 posted by Mitch:

If I recall correctly, he had a pretty good grip on the child, who didn’t fall.

I just saw the footage that the still photograph was taken from for the first time, and I was astounded that a half-second, at most, got turned into what it got turned into. It wasn’t a big deal at all. He was showing the kid (the bits of him that weren’t under a blanket, anyway) to the press, happened to be on balcony, and the still photo was used to condemn anew someone people were convinced was a freak anyway.

Anyway, I’m white, can’t dance, and went through a brief period where I wore a glove on one hand and listened to Thriller a lot. Like, an embarrassing amount.

Another in the ever-increasing list of people who were around for my entire life…not being there anymore.

RIP
IWood

#37 posted by nemofazer:

Don’t get me wrong. I like pop. I like burgers. I like sitcoms. But they don’t enrich like Bach, Sushi or great drama.

I miss Zappa.

You put Bach a bit too close to Ram it/Ram it/Ram it up your poop chute, I think.
Mojave

Who…? Never heard of him.
Bottlekid

FLIP @40: “I believe that he would have gone straight to jail if he didn’t pay off that first kid for 22 million bucks.”

Proving that child prostitution is legal in America. Really, really, really expensive, but legal.

I wonder if the family got his computer before the authorities did? I’ll bet that will reveal a lot.

D’ya think Jacko was a MAC or a PC?
jphilby

Fame, money, power, adulation … How many can withstand such curses? Many go down at a much younger age.

A huge talent, a wonderful caring man. An image twisted as much by the hatred, jealousy, fear (of power) and just plain ignorance pointed at him, his fortune (like Lennon in that way), his color, his androgyny and his orientation as it was by his need to be loved.

To the extent that Michael became a mirror of the ravening, adulous consumption-culture that consumed him, his image was ours.

R.I.P. sweet man.
IWood

#33 posted by hokano:

I’ll just repeat what Takuan asked about David Carradine:

“Did anyone know him? Was he a good man?”

Right! Everyone shut up, then. There’s no sense sharing whatever memories you might have of the man’s music or how it might have been playing in the background at certain meaningful points of your life. It certainly didn’t mean you had any real connection with the entertainment industry tool that made it. Stop this tacky display of sentimentality at once! You should all be embarrassed. I’m embarrassed for you. Blabbering on about someone you never met. Bunch of self-indulgent emo whiners!

And while we’re at it…abolish funerals! They’re dead, people, and they don’t care, and there’s no reason for all of you to mill around being sad and talking about a dead person and munching on canapÃ©s, is there? Be rational, for fuck’s sake!
hokano

Hmm…
Anonymous

I LOVE YOU MJ AND I WILL MISS YOU DEARLY. WORDS CAN’T EXPRESS HOW I FEEL RIGHT NOW. I CANT STOP CRYING AND CANT BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE ACTUALLY GONE. YOU WERE TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD. LOVE YOU ALWAYS XXXXXXXXX RIP
brian rutherford

WalterBillington, I said your comments were bullshit and you call me a bigot. Thats a pretty big jump. You’re obviously a big fan and I guess its clear that I’m not. I don’t think getting into an argument with you, controversial or not, would be worthwhile.
Clemoh

I would never hang my kid over a balcony regardless of who the heck wants to see him or her. There are just some things inherent in parenting, and placing your own child in mortal danger, even for a second, reveals a lot more about that wierdo than anything he could say.
Anonymous

MJ you are the BEST !!..
WE Miss YOu MJ….

Rest in Peace !…..
We will never forget you.

NO1 Can EVER break your records ……

THe Undisputed KING OF POP !
Takuan

we all get one death. Would you like someone to speak for you?
Anonymous

Millions of people were shallowly affected by his music.

Michael Jackson was an icon to people who didn’t know anything about music, or care. Did you play an instrument? Did you sing in a choir? Was Michael Jackson your favorite performer? Of course not. The idea is transparently absurd.

Even today, even right here, people are applauding him not for the actual qualities of his work, but for sales figures.

Yes, yes, I agree. He was the fucking McDonalds hamburger chain of music. Enormously popular and successful, and I guarantee the more you eat there, the less you know or care about food.
Anonymous

your music will be play forever
Clemoh

I’ll let my actions in my life speak for me, as we all should.
hokano

I’ll grant that having your work wildly misinterpreted is a hazard faced by all who dabble in the Short Comment genre, but I’m frankly astounded that “Did anyone know him? Was he a good man?” is the comment that brought out the Super Soaker of bile.

After my earlier deli-meat related comments, that was my attempt at sentimentality.

I’ve recently accused a fellow mutant on another thread of being somewhat ham-handed. I accept that assessment of the comment in question.

My condolences on your loss, IWOOD. I apologize to you and to anyone else here who found that pair of questions in any way offensive.
Anonymous

I used to dangle my brother over the baloney … I mean, balcony all the time when we were kids.

Am I bad?
Anonymous

RIP Michael.
You’ll Be Forever In Our Heart!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX1jC0DLhis&feature=channel_page
techbuzz

Looks like an International Moonwalk Day is on July 1st!

http://www.MoonwalkDay.com

/R.I.P MJ
nemofazer

#49. Fair point IWOOD.
Takuan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eulogy
hokano

Anyhow, serves me right for presuming to wield the words of the crunchy sour master.
Takuan

would any wish to make elegy?
hokano

Et voila.
WalterBillington

Ah Brian, it’s not so much I’m a big fan, but that I take a jurisprudential approach to the accusations on Jackson, and can discern the contribution he has made to the history of the performing arts.

The jurisprudential approach requires us, as a civilised society, not to feed off speculation and rumour to satisfy our own needs for salacious stories. In strict terms, if he wasn’t found guilty, we cannot name him as such, and to do so is bigotry.

We can intelligently construct arguments for both sides of the case, but the thing we don’t YET have is proof one way or the other – although the 50 witnesses to his trial add to the weight of evidence.

Funnily enough, referring to other people’s remarks as “bullshit” is a fair indication of bigotry. It’s a simply, angry term that implies anyone listening would do far better than to actually pay attention – which is where and how they might learn something. Refusal to learn, and refusal to be open to new concepts, both are good indications of bigotry. And bigots are often bullies. And bullies try to pick on people smaller than them, more often than not.

Further, I didn’t CALL you a bigot – that would be childish. I characterised you as such. That’s what grown-ups do.

As is so boringly oftent the case, you’ve not responded to the content of my discussion, and have merely tapped away at the bit you found offensive. You apparently can’t understand what I wrote.

It’s really funny to accuse Jacko of molestation. But the real risk (90% – isn’t that it?) of child abuse comes from within their near-relatives: uncles, aunts, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers. I doubt that conventions of paedophiles wear white crystal-encrusted gloves on one hand, don’t you? He’s not really their icon.

If in my life I’d written just one of the top 40 songs he’s written, I’d be proud. Wouldn’t you?
Anonymous

RIP Michael Jackson! Sadly Missed and Loved by Everyone, You were amazing..
Xxxxxxxx
IWood

Oh, it’s not my loss. Hell, I’m not bothered overmuch, myself. My point (which wasn’t fair, BTW–too much snark to be fair) was just that expressions of grief and remembrance, whether about celebrities or unknowns, are never about the dead person. They’re about the people who are still alive, whether they knew the deceased or not.

Anyway–shot first, didn’t ask questions later. Your post just reminded me of a certain superiority that the cynically hip affect when hoi polloi get upset about things like this.
Sea Daddy

Why is this news? He was a pedophile that bought his way out of prosecution. Many people died today that were far better persons than him, perhaps not famous, but then again, they didn’t rape little boys. I simply say good riddance. He now has to answer to THE highest authority, and He can’t be bought.
Anonymous

I like both Michael and Weird Al. Eat It! Eat It! Get yourself an egg and beat it!
Rickyneck

What a truly sad day, to have lost an icon of STARDOM,Michael was a true superstar,who’s light was snuffed by all the publicity of his eccentric behavior. He is a LEGEND,stop comparing his genius with others,he stood above so many. RIP GREAT ONE.
WalterBillington

Just read who is saying what – an awful lot of people are “risking” all –

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8120080.stm
Anonymous

i am so upset R.I.P 2 the KING.
we lov u 4 evaxxxx
SeattlePete

Yes, MJ was a LEDGEND. Whatever. Really, Thriller came out the same year as Fear…The Record. I heard people making a lot of noise about Thriller at the time, but they were normals so I didn’t pay any attention. “Smooth Criminal” is more epic than “Beef Baloney”?
desiredusername

He made his mark. There is no doubt of that.
Justin Ried

There will never be another like him, and the world is a little less interesting without him in it…

Thanks for the music and the memories, MJ. Rest in peace.
Anonymous

rip mj !!!
Enochrewt

I’m stunned and shocked. Say what you will about the man and his, well, craziness, but you’ve got to give respect to a guy that gave the world “Billie Jean”.

RIP MJ
Anonymous

Michael Jackson can not be hurt, anymore!!! the pain is over.
pAULbOWEN

Swells, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, all within 48 hours – my youth is disappearing before my eyes it seems.

Goodbye and thank you to all three.
IWood

BTW, @hokano the strength of my bilehammer may also be attributed to a partial lack of sobriety. Getting banned from Warren Ellis’s comment section has apparently taught me NOTHING.

Gonna go take a piss on the WiFi router to avoid further complications this evening.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  IWood,
  
  Well written bile is an art form. Of course, that doesn’t mean that it might not blow back in your face when you spit it at someone.
Anonymous

Michael Jackson was a rock in influencing and motivating the young musicians. Rest in peace MJ

Hesborn Kola
Nairobi, Kenya
flip

#100 POSTED BY BOTTLEKID, JUNE 26, 2009 6:33 AM

I wonder if the family got his computer ~snip~
D’ya think Jacko was a MAC or a PC?

I think MJ was a PC type… but I also think he was smart enough to not have it loaded up with picts of his molestation.
The LAPD is all over this.. they’ve towed the personal physician’s car today… a man who’s gone missing although his car is parked outside MJ’s home.
They’re treating it as if it was a crime scene

One thing is for sure… MJ won’t be able to OJ his way out of this.
it’ll be interesting to see the kool-aid mobs reaction when the kids start talking about what it was like to be exposed to a demented person like that.
Anonymous

Has anyone realized that it is spelled “bologna”? Just saying.
Anonymous

yu are legend ,yu are king You will be missed MJ King of Pop we will miss u MJ see you in haeven!!!!!
joannaw

I’m completely devastated. This is a sad, sad day.
jawsy

I still cannot believe this.
hokano

[E]xpressions of grief and remembrance, whether about celebrities or unknowns, are never about the dead person. They’re about the people who are still alive, whether they knew the deceased or not.

Agreed. And I can see how you could easily have heard a cynical tone in the comment in question. I was, after all, kicking the balcony/baloney/mortadela ball around earlier in the thread. Rather adolescent behavior at what amounts to a wake.

“I’m sorry” in English sometimes sounds too trite. So I would just say ç”³ã—è¨³ã‚ã‚Šã¾ã›ã‚“ã§ã—ãŸ.
Stefan Jones

Yeesh . . . sad, but this isn’t surprising. Can anyone imagine an old Michael Jackson? Much less a grown-up one?

Jackson seemed to aspire to posthumanity, although I don’t think he’d use that name.

Hats off to the King of Pop.
nemryn

Also of note: Jackson’s (possible) involvement with the soundtrack for Sonic The Hedgehog 3. Like many other Internet factoids, this one’s hard to pin down, but it sure looks plausible.
dexter121uk

its a sad time when a legend dies, he has had one amazing life thats for sure!.
RIP – MJ – The legend
Anonymous

@37
Saying that pop doesen’t enrich like Bach is kind of narrow-minded. The only way you can measure the value of music objectively, is by popularity. That’s it. Anything else is opinion and taste.

And anyway, that mainstream vs alternative crap is getting kind of old. It’s market economy, deal with it d:
Anonymous

he had many many faults, but werent most of them made up by the presumptous (appologize if any words are mispelled) media? he was a great singer, but through the years i guess we can say his mid-life crisis lasted longer than anyone could imagine. In his younger years he truley was the king of pop. but years of wear and tear brought him down a few steps on the ladder of life. i never realized how much of an idol he was, but doesnt the saying go… “you never realize what you got till its gone” he deffinately had his creepy moments… but RIP mike!
we will all miss you, even those who werent for your favor.
Anonymous

Well, he was obviously capable of recording a song. Or participating in recording a song. He was raised and trained to do it from birth, after all. And he could, uh, “dance,” his own creepy way. Dude, if you’re that into uniforms and armbands, the BEST thing that could really be going on is if you’re merely gay.

But he was enormously overrated. He sold lots of records. To junior-high-school kids. He already got way more praise during his lifetime than was warranted by his actual artistic output, much less his offstage behavior.

One can only hope the posthumous hype is over as soon as possible. One might even morbidly hope somebody else kicks off this week who deserves more attention.
Anonymous

Ð¡Ð¾Ð²ÑÐµÐ¼ ÐµÑ‰Ñ‘ Ð½ÐµÐ´Ð°Ð²Ð½Ð¾,Ð½ÐµÐ´Ð°Ð²Ð½Ð¾ Ñ‚Ñ‹ Ð±Ñ‹Ð» ÑÐ½Ð°Ð¼Ð¸ Ð½Ð¾ Ð‘Ð¾Ð³ Ð·Ð°Ð±Ñ€Ð°Ð» Ñ‚ÐµÐ±Ñ Ðº ÑÐ¸Ð±Ðµ Ð¾ÑÑ‚Ð°Ð²Ð¸Ð² Ð±Ð¾Ð»ÑŒ Ð¸ Ñ€Ð°Ð½Ñ‹.ÐœÑ‹ Ñ‚ÐµÐ±Ñ Ð½ÐµÐ·Ð°Ð±ÑƒÐ´ÐµÐ¼ Ñ‚Ñ‹ Ð²ÑÐµÐ³Ð´Ð° Ð±ÑƒÐ´ÐµÑˆ Ñ Ð½Ð°Ð¼Ð¸,Ð½Ð¸ÐºÑ‚Ð¾ Ð½ÐµÐ¼Ð¾Ð¶ÐµÑ‚ Ð¿Ð¾Ð²ÐµÑ€Ð¸Ñ‚ÑŒ Ñ‡Ñ‚Ð¾ Ñ‚ÐµÐ±Ñ Ð±Ð¾Ð»ÑŒÑˆÐµ Ð½ÐµÑ‚ ÐœÑ‹ Ð¿Ð¾ Ñ‚ÐµÐ±Ðµ ÑÐºÑƒÑ‡Ð°ÐµÐ¼,Ð±Ð¾Ð»ÑŒÑˆÐµ Ð½Ð°Ð¼ Ð½Ð¸ÐºÑ‚Ð¾ Ð½ÐµÐ½ÑƒÐ¶ÐµÐ½.Ð¢Ñ‹ Ð½Ð°Ð²ÑÐµÐ³Ð´Ð° Ð¾ÑÑ‚Ð°Ð½ÐµÑˆÑÑ Ð² Ð½Ð°ÑˆÑ‹Ñ… ÑÐµÑ€Ð´Ñ†Ð°Ñ….You forever in our hart’s MJ\Rest in Peace/
Mitch

I haven’t heard anything about the cause yet. I
wonder if being an object of ridicule for so many
people had anything to do with his premature demise.
eggonstilts

I respect his talent but not the man. He was a child molester and a dangerous parent. What sane person dangles their own child out a baloney window?
Johnny Cat

Wow, there sure is a lot of Baloney in this thread.
Tdawwg

Heu, miserande puer, si qua fata aspera rumpas….
eggonstilts

ah, that’s balcony window.
Anonymous

Bye” Superstar … . . .
vetlemakt

I am sad.
The King is dead.
roysc

You can read more about the condition behind Michael Jackson’s death here:
http://bit.ly/E8ie7
hokano

Though a baloney window would be even less stable and therefore more dangerous.
Takuan

http://picturesforsadchildren.com/blog/famous.png
patii93

omfgsh… i didn’t think he would go soo young.. i really did enjoy his music.. i just cant beleive it.
Galaxyhead

The fellow’s talent and regrettable mistakes stemmed from traumatic abuse. If anything, people should view him as a pivotal example as to why we need a better understanding of the effects of emotional abuse on children, and the sometimes awful background that leads people, even those we assume to be geniuses, to commit the deviant acts we are so ready to condemn them for.
Takuan

how corruptible is the Los Angeles Coroner’s Department?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  LA has great coroners. There are so many exotic and unimaginable ways to die in LA, the coroners are extraordinarily thorough.
Takuan

http://www.webwombat.com.au/entertainment/movies/images/bubba-ho-tep.JPG
Anonymous

I want a baloney window! Mmmm baloney….
cszostek

When I left work he was in a coma, when I got home he was dead. It feels weird, I remember being woken up in ’85 or ’86 by my folks to watch his concert on t.v. Damn,…his kids…f’k. I hope they have someone to/……f’ck this sucks!
Anonymous

thanks for posting that video, its quite lovely. Grown man burst into tears at 1.10

remember him like the southpark kids did with chef.
nck wntrhltr

Weird Al should do a tribute song.
Perhaps “Man doll in the wind”.
IWood

I want to die in an exotic and unimaginable way!
patii93

@ #9, he wasn’t a child molester. and if he was, then the parents of those kids are stupid for even letting them spend the night with someone who has that type of reputation.
buddy66

“The only way you can measure the value of music objectively, is by popularity.”

Try longevity.
Stefan Jones

Well, I’ve already seen one horribly tasteless joke about the cause of death.
IWood

*ZAP*
Takuan

…how to start over?….
joanna

@#129 et al:

I sing in several projects (though never a choir); I am a musician in several bands; I think I have some respect from musician colleagues and decent tastes (Bach, sushi and Weird Al counted highly among them); I live and work in NYC. MJ is one of my favorite performers, truly the last of the great song and dance men who rose to fame in such a specific moment in rock history that will never come around again, and his death has impacted me profoundly because his life and work did. He meant a lot to many, many people.
IWood

Michael Jackson Ghost Lifemasks.

Group of three busts of Michael Jackson, two including forearms and hands, making faces. Each is mounted to a black wooden base on plexiglass sheet. The masks were created for the the special effects sequences in Jackson’s 1997 short film, Ghosts. They can be seen on screen during the closing credits of the film as Jackson undergoes his special effects makeup application in his trailer.

Friend of mine happened to be buying a copy of the catalog for this auction just as the news was breaking. List price was $200, but the website hung up on the transaction. When she tried again, it was $500.
Anonymous

RIP Michael. As Un-Real As It Feels. We Love You. Best Singer And Dancer Of All Time
Takuan

what about those reports of a unmarked minivan seen loading something at the rear entrance?
Anonymous

R.I.P Jacko :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe1jaMA3ddY
IWood

Shhh! You’ll fuck up his new life in Qatar.
IamInnocent

He finally got the only peace he could still hope for.
Clay

The “Pepsi?” video is the perfect note to end on — a prime reflection of Jackson’s contribution to music before his transformation into a one-man tabloid sideshow.

Personally, I’m going to block out all the retrospectives for the next few days and just keep that one in my mind.
jimsing59

He was a talented person/child/whatever. Great dancing ability.
Takuan

it COULD be.
SamSam

Sheesh, all the people with the “he could have killed his baby by dropping him off a balony”-thing…

Have you ever held a baby above your head, or seen anyone do that? A seven-foot drop on a baby’s head would kill the baby instantly. These parents are putting their children in just as much “mortal danger” (as Clemoh said).

So why is it that we allow parents to hold their babies at all? Because, actually, it’s pretty darn easy to hold a baby tight, and anyone who thinks otherwise has never had a baby.

Heck, we have old videos of my father throwing me up into the air a foot above his head when I was a baby.
avraamov

@13:

a mortadela window, however, might facilitate more child-dangling due to extra strength/flexibility caused by the pork-fat cubes acting as a composite binding medium.
Anonymous

R.I.P Michael Jackson You Are A True Legend And Your Music Will Live On For Generations!
Anonymous

I realized that ever since that thing happened, people stopped telling jokes, making fun of him, & realized how important he wuz. I’m not saying it’s a miracle, just that he’s in a happier place. RIP michael jackson
cosanostradamus

.
Innocent young boys everywhere will sleep safer tonight.
.
SeamusAndrewMurphy

Baloney window made my evening. Absolutely delightful typo. Can’t even picture what one would look like or look through. Who cares, that’s a keeper.
hokano

Walter Billington wrote:

Enjoy life as a bigot. Smash another beer on the tv.

Later he added:

Further, I didn’t CALL you a bigot – that would be childish. I characterised you as such. That’s what grown-ups do.

But adults generally don’t use cardboard.
Anonymous

balcony/baloney discrimination problems? we have a solution…
ackpht

Dissing the guy on the day he dies? Jeez. Try not to think about how his music will be playing long after you’re dead, then.
Anonymous

Will the kid and family he paid off years ago finally be able to reveal the truth?
eggonstilts

@Patii93, stupid yes, and I’m sure the parents where paid very nicely to pimp out their children.

I prefer a well aged JamÃ³n to line my windows.
fisheggs

Amazing talent but very lost person.
hokano

Actually, “mortadela window” is what damn near happened to that child of his. And so we’ve come full circle.
hokano

I’ll just repeat what Takuan asked about David Carradine:

“Did anyone know him? Was he a good man?”
dd528

@ 121:

But he was enormously overrated. He sold lots of records. To junior-high-school kids. He already got way more praise during his lifetime than was warranted by his actual artistic output, much less his offstage behavior.

I think you fail to understand the importance of Michael Jackson’s art to R&B and dance music, and to the music industry in general, let alone to his millions of fans.

Before Michael Jackson, black artists didn’t get played on MTV. Before Michael Jackson, they didn’t put black artists on the cover of Rolling Stone. Before Michael Jackson, the notion of an artist having five number one singles from one album, or of selling 100 million copies of one album, was something that died with the Beatles.

He had a fantastic voice, and tremendous talent as a dancer, honed by many years of rigorous practise. He single-handedly wrote many of his most popular songs, including tracks like Billie Jean that are genuine cultural touchstones for more than one generation.

Aesthetics are subjective, of course, but millions of people were deeply affected by his music. If you don’t realise this, then I would venture that you are out of touch with the cultural realities of societies around the world. It’s one thing to find little of value in his music yourself – I rarely listen to his songs – but to deny its cultural, political and artistic importance smacks of ignorance.

Sure, the man had a spectacularly fucked-up life of stage, but much of that only came to light after he’d already reached dizzying heights, and cannot diminish the impact he had on people when they first heard those genre defining albums of the 1980s.

Maybe it’s better off for all concerned that he’s dead, especially if he was a child-molester, but he made the best-selling album of all time, and had a legitimate claim to being the most famous person in the world. Ever. So I think the hype is both understandable and forgiveable.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Before Michael Jackson, black artists didn’t get played on MTV.
  
  Michael Jackson, born August 29, 1958, started performing 1967.
  
  MTV, born August 1, 1981.
  
  Huh?
Mitch

If I recall correctly, he had a pretty good grip
on the child, who didn’t fall.
Pantograph

Dissing the guy on the day he dies? Jeez.

Something along the lines of “he died the way he lived his life” would be appropriate here.
Anonymous

R.I.P Michael Jackson You Are A True Legend And Your Music Will Live On For Generations! God Only Takes The Best! ‘KIG OF POP’. Thanks For All Your Great Albums Especially ‘Thriller’ RIP MJ xxxxx JD
Anonymous

i can.t believe it…really…it was my first love…since kindergarden…i was 5 years old when i started to listen his music and watch him dancing…simply the great and the best! THE ONE! i do really cry…
brian rutherford

“The worst thing that can happen to a man is to lose his money, the next worst his health, the next worst his reputation”
Samuel Butler
Anonymous

R.I.P Michael you will be rember for genarations and ur music will be remberd forever and a day.

R.I.P
dapxin

Supremely talented. Indeed…

It had to end one way;

Leaves us to stare our own morbidity in the face…

RIP – a one lifetime man.
WalterBillington

Perfect example of what happens to us when the gates are unlocked – an immense talent, worked well beyond the limits of most people in the sense that he had nothing holding him back. By his phenomenal example of musical and artistic creation, his skillful balance on the fame ride (in the 80s!), he sets a new definition for our capabilities.

If you look at a roster of his songs I guarantee that, barring your absolutely die-hard adherence lto one band, you will recognise more songs and recall more beats / melodies / lyrics than with anything else.

The words “pop sensation” and “king of pop” seem hardly to do justice to him. He had universal appeal, a stunning impact, and gave expression to private emotion to so many people, particularly those restrained from their own self-expression, that he can’t be seen as anything less than some kind of shamen.

One of his special tricks was to invert difficult emotions from hidden to revealed, through a synthesis of so many media that most of us are boggled by it, but most of us can appreciate the outcome.

Billie Jean, first seen nearly 30 years ago, and I remember it so clearly. Whatever the artistic inputs to this, the result is so unique, approachable, flavoured, but obvious and attractive to all – I’m not actually sure I can name many artists who’ve had the same kind of impact.

So Peter Pan, King of Pop, lunatic, all of these labels simply form an ad-hoc base, a jumble, for the actual flavour and character of his impact.

Separate these thoughts from the allegations of dreadful behaviour, and ask yourself if he has contributed in any way to your life.

And if you’re going to attack him for alleged paedophilia (which way do I lean? hard to say. It’s all bad), then spend the time and emotional effort to join efforts to reduce and eliminate this crime from the world, rather than preaching from a pulpit you haven’t earned.

R.I.P – I know I’ll never forget him in my lifetime.
Anonymous

Michael you will be missed but never forgot thank you rip
Anonymous

It’s hard to divorce the great music from the wierd stageshow that was his life.

One one side you have and amazing singer, dancer and performer.

On the other side you have a strange 50 year old african american man who changed his skin colour, who was over obsessed with surgery, who had an unnaturally high pitched voice and who had dubious attitudes towards small children.

If you weight his life on the scales I think it comes up more towards the latter oddball, than the former superstar.
nemofazer

Wow. Leaving aside his very damaged personality I get so saddened by declarations of his enormous talent. I have two words for you. Quincy Jones.

The world is, if not full of, the at least has an astonishing array of talented musicians. A small minority produce very easily digestible pop and are revered beyond measure by a huge majority.

Don’t get me wrong. I like pop. I like burgers. I like sitcoms. But they don’t enrich like Bach, Sushi or great drama.

I miss Zappa.
Avram / Moderator

JimSing59 @20, your website URL goes on your profile page, not in your comments.
WalterBillington

… and look at this:

Albums take 14 of the top 20 places

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/michael-jackson-albums-take-14-of-top-20-chart-places-1720427.html
Johnny Cat

That video Joel posted really sums up Michael’s state of mind beautifully. He always regretted his lost childhood, and at least had the gumption to acknowledge he was in love with his inner child.
flip

COME ON PEOPLE … put the Kool Aid down.

He was a Child Molester and predator.
I believe that he would have gone straight to jail if he didn’t pay off that first kid for 22 million bucks.
I believe that his “Children” aren’t fathered by him.
and his marriage was a sham, just a legal way for him to have access too two kids without being charged.
If you care to look, they’re Blond Hair, Blue eyed and white skinned
there’s no way that he’s their father.. the dental assistant mother actually sold her own kids into sexual slavery for cash.

Just because this guy was able to trade money and celebrity for his get out of jail card, doesn’t mean it’s right.

I’m glad he’s dead… except that he should have died in prison.
time will show I’m correct.
Anonymous

A legend among legends. I don’t think there will ever be another person as famous or talented as Michael Jackson. The world feels a little colder without you Mike. RIP.
buddy66

@#37,

A-men
Bobdotcom

sigh… now comes the inevitable: days, weeks, months, perhaps even years, of remembrances, retrospectives, tell-alls, and 2-hour televised tribute concerts for the self-proclaimed “king of pop.”
Anonymous

I liked michael jackson but it shock’s me how he kept taken all these medication when he had 3 beautiful children living with him. i dont understand what he could of been thinking i sure he has seem the news over the last few years of other great talented celebrites who have passed away from taken to much medication. surely the alarm bells would of been ringing, he had the money and power and many people who loved him and cared for him to stop this but i guess he thought he was diffrent . and yes he was in many ways.i feel for the children and he’s family who have to deal with this awfull pain and sadness of he’ death. RIP michael i hope you watch down on your family during this sad time
Anonymous

R.I.P Michael Jackson,We will never forget you !<3
Tom Fury

Talent or not, I have no respect for a child molester. Imagine my disappointment when, expecting to see him with his hair on fire, I ended up watching just another crummy commercial.
brian rutherford

#92
“One of his special tricks was to invert difficult emotions from hidden to revealed, through a synthesis of so many media that most of us are boggled by it, but most of us can appreciate the outcome.”

Someone call the bullshit police. This is the man who wrote a song about his pet rat. As for his ‘alleged’ paedophilia if we had all done something to try to erase this heinous crime from the world then Michael Jackson would still be alive today…in prison.
Anonymous

Of course, it had to happen. There is a rapidly growing list of Michael Jackson Death jokes at http://teakdoor.com/the-teakdoor-lounge/52746-jacko-jokes.html.

My favorite:

Farrah Fawcett arrives in Heaven on the morning of June 25, 2009 and St. Peter asks if she had any last wish. She says she wants all children on Earth to be safe. So God snaps his fingers and Michael Jackson immediately has a cardiac arrest.
Falcon_Seven

They come in ‘threes’, McMahon, Fawcett, Jackson. Mostly.

RIP Michael Jackson

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