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Old School Friday, Michael Jackson

June 26th, 2009 by cooper

It’s old school fri­day and by default, and death, Michael Jack­son is the theme. Though bog­gled by the scram­ble the media does to cover the deaths of cele­bri­ties, and my good­ness last night they cer­tainly were scram­bling to get on this band­wa­gon, to the relief of the gover­nor of South Caro­lina and the dis­may of Farrah Fawcett’s family, and fans, I unders­tand. Michael Jack­son was in a dif­fe­rent lea­gue. “A lea­gue of his own” has never had a more true member.

His music, though not of my gene­ra­tion, made my gene­ra­tion. Music that pla­yed as if new through most of my high school years, des­pite the fact he was already labe­led a sad oddity, a man who sta­yed a child in some ways, spe­cu­la­ted on, tried, acquit­ted, sequestered.

I was stun­ned when I heard it. One doesn’t really know what to feel but sad.

Rest in peace Michael Jackson.

Oh, and thank you for the music.

OSF spon­so­red by Con­ver­sa­tions With Marva and Mrs Gra­pe­vine

The pla­yers:

Elec­tro­nic Village | Kim | Kevin – A Slant Truth | Mar­cus LANGFORD | irie­gal | John | CC Groovy | Krea­tive Talk | Regina | Viv­rant Thing | AJ | Belei­ver 1964 | SJP | Bklyn­Queen 86 | Hey Shae | Mal­colm

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27 Responses to “Old School Friday, Michael Jackson”

  1. caseyjakeNo Gravatar says:

    You couldn’t have cho­sen a more appro­priate song.
    caseyjake´s last blog ..RIP Michael Jack­son.

  2. gNo Gravatar says:

    I work at a bar, can you ima­gine what last night was like?
    I don’t have time to write anything so I’ll live vica­riously through the pos­ting of millions of others.
    g´s last blog ..Sur­fing Libe­ria

    • cooperNo Gravatar says:

      We went to a bar after the movies, because we heard it on the way out, it was pretty early but yea I kind of understand.

  3. TellieNo Gravatar says:

    His death was defi­ni­tely a shock to me. Great song :) I for­got about this one, but its pro­bably one of the most appro­priate for the occasion.

  4. MarvalusNo Gravatar says:

    Love this choice…so apropos.

    Made me start crying all over again…dammit.

    Happy OSF…
    Marvalus´s last blog ..Old School Fri­day: Michael Jack­son

  5. actonbellNo Gravatar says:

    Ah, that brought back memo­ries, he was such a sweet, cute kid. (My dad said, at the time, that he thought this was a nice song until he found out that it was about a rat. heh)

  6. BennetNo Gravatar says:

    Unfor­tu­na­tely I remem­ber him when is was only thought of as cool. I remem­ber as a kid lear­ning his moon walk, even though I didn’t know how to dance.
    I never thought I’d live pas­sed him. I thought he’d be in his 70s still pop­ping pel­vic thrusts in an elec­tric fashion that only Michael Jack­son could.
    I cer­tainly hope he is res­ting in peace.

    As for the media crap spe­wing the same thing, repea­tedly, I swear, this is exactly the kind of think that makes me wish I could shift to living in a para­llel dimen­sion. Perhaps in that rea­lity Michael Jack­son is Hil­ter, and ever­yone is saying:” I wish he were gone, stop ens­la­ving the kids to act like mon­keys.“
    Bennet´s last blog ..Ejack’s Erra­tio­nal Tem­por­men­ta­tions

  7. BeezNo Gravatar says:

    I unders­tand the fee­ling. Part of me is still in denial. I deci­ded to remem­ber who my Michael was (as in, who Michael was for me, rather than what the media wan­ted us to make him out to be).

    I remem­ber lear­ning the dan­ces, sin­ging the songs, watching the movies.

    For that, I’ll smile through the misty eyes and live.

  8. johnNo Gravatar says:

    May he rest in peace, and may the con­ti­nual “beat it” drone coming from the tele­vi­sion stop. But, oh wait, here comes Liza Min­ne­lli to tell her story.…

    The song even though about a rat or mouse or something, is fit­ting in this case.
    john´s last blog ..Health Care For Every Body, The Movie

  9. I also put a video of him on my last post. What’s hap­pe­ned to us? Just because the man who has influen­ced me as a child died, the man whose still-unaltered face I saw on my bedroom cei­ling (my one and only cei­ling pos­ter), the man whose Thri­ller video pre­mier I sta­yed up to watch, the man whose refu­sal to grow old I wit­nes­sed as I grew up, slightly emba­rras­sed by my ear­lier fashion choi­ces. Wha­te­ver hap­pe­ned to him when he refu­sed to grow up while the rest of the world and his own body moved on, he will always be my childhood.
    Peo­ple in the Sun´s last blog ..This post should have been about my tor­ture device

  10. DougNo Gravatar says:

    I sup­pose if I felt about plas­tic sur­gery the way I feel about crac­king wise over tra­gedy, I’d look a little strange by now, too. RIP, Michael.
    Doug´s last blog ..Occa­sio­nal

    • cooperNo Gravatar says:

      Crac­king wise over tra­gedy, some­ti­mes it has to be done. “Wron­ging Rights” is one of my favo­rite reads.

  11. sauerkrautNo Gravatar says:

    What I find really sad is that in his adult years, he became a cari­ca­ture of him­self while trying to main­tain the cele­brity of his youth. The over­load cove­rage on tele­vi­sion is really odd. And has buried the death of Farrah Faw­cett — a pop­cul­ture icon in her own right.
    sauerkraut´s last blog ..Farrah did not go quietly into that good night.

    • cooperNo Gravatar says:

      I guess for me Farrah was done before I was born, no real las­ting affect for me or my gene­ra­tion, but his stuff was still out there and had affec­ted my gene­ra­tions pop cul­ture and music fore­ver. Farrah’s didn’t affect me. Though the bur­ning bed was pretty damn good.

  12. piaNo Gravatar says:

    oh god, I have heard and/or seen so many tri­bu­tes and this is the first that has me crying, rather hys­te­ri­cally. Coo­per how do you always know the exact music…?

    I didn’t watch Charlie’s Angels so to me Farrah Faw­cett was all pos­ters for twelve year old boys and I wish I had more to say…
    pia´s last blog ..

  13. […] Cooper’s tri­bute to Michael Jack­son left me crying too too much. He was such an inc­re­dibly talen­ted boy and I would love to remem­ber that way or in “Billie Jean” […]

  14. BoneNo Gravatar says:

    Great song, Coo­per. Last night, I came across a video of him per­for­ming the song “Gone Too Soon” which was about Ryan White. It fit.

    And I had the same thoughts about San­ford. I guess this was his Get Out Of The Head­li­nes Free card.
    Bone´s last blog ..“Some of it’s magic, some of it’s tra­gic”

  15. He was just a year older than I, so I grew up with his sound track. A sad ending to a sad life.

  16. Inte­res­ting article :)