June 25, 2009 is a day I will never forget.
It began with the news that Farrah Fawcett lost her long battle with cancer. The courage she showed publicly throughout her treatment, remission, and recurrence was truly an inspiration.
My favorite Angel is now truly an angel.
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As I went on about an incredibly stressful day, I did a double-take as I read a tweet on my phone that Michael Jackson had been rushed to UCLA Medical Center in cardiac arrest.
Cardiac arrest?!?
I, as I am sure many others, thought surely it wasn’t possible that we could lose two icons the very same day. Still, I immediately turned on CNN and logged onto my TweetDeck to keep apprised of the breaking news updates.
Sidenote: By the way, have I mentioned that I’m a news buff? Also, I just want to say that so far there hasn’t been one time that I haven’t gotten breaking news via Twitter at least 30-45 minutes ahead of the major news outlets, and have been able to keep my friends and family informed when they couldn’t be near a TV or radio. Naysayers, keep hating, but you’re the ones behind the curve.
Meanwhile, the tweets coming in were not encouraging…the family was saying that he was not in good shape. I didn’t have a good feeling at all.
Then the heart-wrenching tweet broke:
RT @BreakingNews: FLASH — LOS ANGELES — “KING OF POP” MICHAEL JACKSON HAS DIED.
Call me a drama queen…I really don’t care…but I broke down and bawled.
No, I never met Michael Jackson. Never got near the man. Yet, he affected my generation so profoundly not only because of his artistry and amazing body of work, but for his humanitarian efforts — We Are The World. I learned tonight that Michael Jackson headed up more than 36 different humanitarian charities, not the least of which was USA for Africa and more recently charities benefiting the families of 9/11 victims.
Consider this from Sony Music:
Five of Jackson’s solo albums – “Off the Wall,” “Thriller,” “Bad,” “Dangerous” and “HIStory,” all with Epic Records, a Sony Music label – are among the top-sellers of all time. During his extraordinary career, he sold an estimated 750 million records worldwide, released 13 No.1 singles and became one of a handful of artists to be inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Guinness Book of World Records recognized Jackson as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time and “Thriller” as the Biggest Selling Album of All Time. Jackson won 13 Grammy Awards and received the American Music Award’s Artist of the Century Award.
Michael Jackson started in the music business at the age of 11 with his brothers as a member of the Jackson 5. In the early 1980s, he defined the art form of music video with such ground-breaking videos as “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and the epic “Thriller.” Jackson’s sound, style and dance moves inspired subsequent generations of pop, soul, R&B and hip-hop artists.
Since the beginning of time, every age has had their musical prodigies. Those so extraordinary that, while alive, the audience may have stood in applause, but only generations later would the magnitude of their influence truly be known — King David, Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Gershwin, Sousa, Lennon/McCartney, Jackson…
Nobody walking this planet today can understand what Michael Jackson experienced in his life. We cannot judge, because we did not know his fame. The only others who have known his brand of fame — that would be Elvis and Princess Diana — are dead…gone too soon. Therefore, I just don’t believe we have a right to judge why he felt the need to change his body, or wear a mask, or the other unconventional things he did. He seemed to be a man trying desperately to reach back and find the child inside that he was robbed of. He was acquitted of the heinous charges perpetrated against him in a court of law, therefore if there was any truth whatsoever to any of the allegations — which, personally I do not believe there was — it will be taken care of by the Ultimate Judge. Period. Over.
Tonight, I am sad that the world has lost a talented and generous soul in Michael Jackson. What a tremendous loss for the world, but more so…what a terrible loss for the Jackson family and his three young children.
May he now rest in peace.
Filed under: Cultural Matters, Current Events, Music, Obit, Tragedy | Tagged: Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson
R.I.P King of Pop Michael Jackson
May he rest in peace.
i found out through twitter when i was at work and i was stunned. the girl who sits next to me is… well i won’t go into detail, but she’s not a very nice person and instead of being even remotely decent and saying anything about him as a performer, she only mentioned the negative things that the media had ever said about him and was almost laughing at the fact that he had just died. i wish i could have turned to her and said, “listen, sweetheart… you’re not a saint, either so if i were you i’d shut the hell up.” based on the stories i overhear her telling at work, she has no right to judge any person.
needless to say, i believe the world has lost a brilliant performer. for this, i am very sad. :[ the fact that farrah fawcett lost her battle with cancer was bad enough, but for something like this to just happen without warning makes yesterday very hard to forget.
I think it’s natural to cry for someone who touched your life in one way or another. In the end, he will probably be remembered more for his performances than the things he was accused of.
I never was a big MJ fan, but I was shocked when I heard the news today.
If something means a lot to you, your gonna cry. Hell, I cry at the tear jerker contestants they have on this season of “America’s Got Talent”!!! I am just sorry that most of the world will remember MJ as a strange, somewhat weird pedophile. I hope people concentrate on his music. That was what made him great in the first place.
I still have “The Way You Make Me Feel” running through my head….. and after all these years, I still want to be Jill on “Charlie’s Angels”.
While I agree that breaking news seems to hit Twitter before anywhere else, I will also admit that I was skeptical about Michael Jackson’s death reports on Twitter yesterday. I paid attention and it made me look to find more information, yes. But since the only agency reporting his death for the first 30-45 minutes was TMZ (a “news” agency only in the most tangential of ways, IMHO), I waited until I heard from elsewhere. To me, TMZ makes the National Enquirer look like the Wall Street Journal, that’s how sensationalistic they are. So, I wouldn’t call myself a hater, just a skeptic.
Ditto, on everything said in this post on MJ; I was never a big fan of his, but, I do not believe for one second that he was ever a pedophile, I believed HIM!
He didn’t have much of a chance to be a little boy, himself! What a talent!!!
I think he was just very troubled and had a “Peter Pan” complex. I never thought he was a child molester.
My roommates and I walked up to the Apollo last night and hung around for a bit. Some singing and dancing, but the cops must have gotten it under control by the time we got there. So cool to see so many people coming out to honor him.
I hope he’s at peace now. I’ve always felt sorry for him.
And Farrah? Still sad, simply not as shocking.
The “funny” thing is, when I told the people at work about it they were like “How’d you find out? blah blah blah” and I told them twitter….they laughed and said that they wouldn’t believe it til something “reliable” told them what really happened. They signed up for twitter last night when they realized how much faster you get news.
RIP to both MJ and Farah. They will be missed.