Gone With or Without fanfare

[klondike]

It will be very interesting to follow the reports from the LA County Coroner's Office.
The LA Times quotes the intial post mortem examinations @ the Ronald Reagan Medical Center as having found no immediate signs of criminal causation, but the LAPD has already confirmed that the investigation of his death is being assigned to their Homicide/Armed Robbery Division.
Hmmmm . .

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Well, Michael Jackson certainly was a 'huge phenomenon' in celebrity land; but I never was much of a fan of his really.
The music was quite good, but as with Madonna, while I liked the music I could never stand the singing (squeaking) and the gyrations that passed for dancing......
And, I couldn't stand to look at him - he was a freak!!!

Also, that sordid private life and all those excuses for it were distasteful and not credible.

However, he was still too young to die and I wonder what's to become of those children; the mother doesn't seem to be any more mentally stable than Michael...

Larry

[charliechaplinfan]

I couldn't believe the news. I'd gone to bed early last night and Chris came to tell me about 11.30pm, I couldn't believe it. I'm not a fan either but he was there during my youth.

The news isn't that clear here, are there suspicious circumstances or has he passed away by natural causes.

My first thought was the irony that he was so frightened of germs, used masks etc but was felled by a premature heartattack. My hearts go out to his children and his family.

[jdb1]

My desk is near one of our small kitchens in the office. There are about 20 people in there talking about "Michael." Everyone's got a different version of the story.

I'm not an admirer. I think he was a grotesquely unhappy man, and I think he turned himself into a grotesquerie. Who knows what he was really looking for, and what degree of self-destruction he practiced? I was always fairly indifferent to his performing and his mystique. But I remember him as a boy, how cute he was, and how much stage presence he had. Fifty is too young to go.

What will ensue is bound to be a disgusting media circus of epic proportions.

[charliechaplinfan]

Is this the equivalent to Elvis passing? Seems like they're trying to play it as such. He had talent, I think his finest work was Off The Wall and Thriller then he seemed to lose momentum and he never picked it up again. I don't equate him to an Elvis or a John Lennon.

A few years ago there was an interview with Martin Bashir who had interviewed Princess Diana a few years before. He was an unhappy man, who knows about the allegations, I'd rather believe the best.

There is an irony that a man who was so clean living, with germ masks etc. died young whereas we still have people like Keith Richards and Iggy Pop around.

It's made me realise what a celebrity culture we live in, the paparazzi had managed to be outside his house straight away and film the whole thing from start to finish. No wonder Britney, Lindsay Lohan etc implode. One thing the media doesn't give a monkeys, our news is showing footage of his body in a body bag being taken to the coroner's office. What about are his family, especially his children surely they deserve a little more decorum.

[charliechaplinfan]

Just heard on the news that it could have been brought on by the (prescription?)drugs he was taken.

[klondike]

It's made me realise what a celebrity culture we live in, the paparazzi had managed to be outside his house straight away and film the whole thing from start to finish . .
showing footage of his body in a body bag being taken to the coroner's office. What about his family, especially his children surely they deserve a little more decorum.

His family, & especially his children, do indeed deserve better, but I think it was Michael Jackson himself who was largely, continually, needlessly to blame for how little privacy & respect they received from the press.
I'm still haunted by that highly-publicized news-pic of MJ dangling one of his infant sons over an upper-storey hotel balcony railing for the papparazzi to photograph. It seemed so disturbingly sacrificial.
How schizo-cathartic: he constantly cycled from a Garboesque "Leave me alone!", to a Foxworthian "Hey, everybody, watch this!!"
Combine that with his grotesquely self-damaging facial reconstruction, pigmet-alteration, chronic gender-bending & child-intimacy obsession, and it truly still begs the question: How many people did being Michael Jackson take ??

[charliechaplinfan]

No doubt there will be loads of books brought out about him and the person he was.

It's sad, he was 50, Elvis was 42, only as I approach that age do I realise how young it really is.

[rudyfan]

Is this the equivalent to Elvis passing? Seems like they're trying to play it as such. He had talent, I think his finest work was Off The Wall and Thriller then he seemed to lose momentum and he never picked it up again. I don't equate him to an Elvis or a John Lennon.

While I can recall exactly where I was when I heard of Elvis, Bing Crosby and John Lennon, this has affected me in much the same fashion. I grew up with Jackson's music as the background of my life, particularly in the early years. I grew up listening to R&B and always called myself a "Motown child." I had far more Motown LPs and 45s than I ever did of, say The Beatles, Beach Boys and such in 1969-1971 (only surpassed later by my fondness for ELO and Elton John and later still classical music).

He seemed to be a terribly unhappy man. With your life contained in a fishbowl, a life that had no childhood, it certainly can warp you (Elvis was a good example of this). Surely Mary Pickford could have identified with at least this as well. I remember Frances Marion's tale of Mary having a blast during the filming of Poor Little Rich Girl actually getting to be a kid. He merely mainfested this on a larger, much more expensive scale, Neverland. A lost boy, certainly. And Pickford would have been horrified at the cost

Such as sad waste os a talent. His persoanl foibles, well, he was accused, but found not guilty except in the court of public opinion, I suppose. I can't comment, I do not know. The optimist in me would hope his wish to recapture the childhood he never had was what manifested in the charitable work he did for underpriviledged children around the world. He certainly was an eccentric and all the plastic surgery, well, that was bizzare.

His music will stand the test of time as a pop artist, I believe. Just my 2 cents.

[charliechaplinfan]

I agree with your assessment Rudyfan, I hope people do remember the positive, he might have been found not guilty but I don't think evidence was ever produced to completely refute the allegations and therefore clear him in the public mind.

The news is crawling with it here, I found a good documentary which I believe had been got ready to coincide with his appearance in London later on this year. It had valuable contributors such as Smokey Robinson and Liza Minelli. It just made me sad, that the talented boy and handsome young man became more mired in celebrity and silly stunts, Like Bubbles and dangling his son out of that window. I don't care how tight a hold he had, there's always that slight chance of error.

This just shows what a nice and grown up place we have here, away from all the hulaballoo that is going on in the media, we can exchange our thoughts about the man, however differing in opinion in a calm manner.

[mrsl]

I'm really going to miss Farrah, she was everything I wanted to be, but then I would look in the mirror . . . Oh, well.

Anne

[klondike]

I'm really going to miss Farrah, she was everything I wanted to be, but then I would look in the mirror . . . Oh, well.

Anne

I understand that was how Michael Jackson felt about Diana Ross.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Yes Anne, today the newscasts are featuring Michael Jackson - sometimes the whole program. And, poor Farrah Fawcett is a mere mention, somewhat like a 'footnote' in entertainment history.
She was far more credible a performer and human being than "Wacko Jacko" ever was....

And Klondike, I do 'get you' in your remark about MJ and Diana Ross - - reminds me of the saying about him - - "A black man who turned into a white woman!!"....

Larry

[klondike]

Yes Anne, today the newscasts are featuring Michael Jackson - sometimes the whole program. And, poor Farrah Fawcett is a mere mention, somewhat like a 'footnote' in entertainment history.

Don't mean to sound like I'm unpacking ancient laundry here, but Larry's observation about Farrah being 'footnoted' by the longer celebrity shadow reminds me strongly of the sad Summer's day that Robert Mitchum passed over; all of show business, and most of the movie-going world, was stunned as though poleaxed, and just preparing to commiserate over the loss of that indisputable noir/adventure film icon, when on the very next morning, word broke that we had, incredibly, just lost James Stewart, too!
And within the hour all media reflection over Bob Mitchum's passing had evaporated seemingly without a trace, and suddenly eulogies for everybody's beloved Jimmy, deserved & justifiable though they were, vastly predominated the media airwaves, nearly to the exclusion of all else, for days & days to come, with barely more than a brief, occasional mention of that freight-hoppin' loner with the busted nose & the crooked grin . .

[silentscreen]

I see what you mean about Farrah. But last night, Farrah got a longer segment here than Michael. I mean Farrah was from Corpus Christi, TX, so she was a pretty big star here in Texas. I think if Michael is receiving the lion's share of the media attention, it was because he was younger, and a larger ICON than Farrah nationally.

I remember when Princess Di passed in 1997, my then teenaged son said, "I don't see why she's getting so much attention, and Mother Theresa just passed and she's not. I mean, wasn't she a bigger Saint than Princess Di?" Out of the mouths of babes.... I told him then. It's the media, they dwell on looks, not deeds. Mother Theresa should have gotten more coverage.