Report: Michael Jackson has died

[Aggie87]

Spinning Off The Wall now. He sure got creepy, but this album is great. RIP.

Absolutely. No single artist, not even Elvis himself, spanned such extremes as did Michael Jackson. Jackson's highs were brilliant. His lows were abysmal. Listening to "Off the Wall" right now, myself. To me, this album represents one of the great missed opportunities in music history (great as it is): One of the tracks, "I Can't Help It," was written by Stevie Wonder. Can you imagine what a Stevie written and produced Michael Jackson album would have sounded like?

Another one of the great missed opportunities also involves Michael: The song "Bad" was originally conceived as a duet for Michael and Prince. They wound up not doing it (Prince claims because they couldn't agree who would sing the line, "Your butt is mine...") and I think it's tragic that they didn't. A Michael Jackson and Prince collaboration...the mind reels.

Tragic? WTF? Oh well, they never collaborated. Big fucking deal.

Tragic is what that POS did to little boys.

And now there's this... http://awkwardstar.wordpress.com/2009/06/2...ichael-jackson/

If true, perhaps there's the real "tragedy."

If that is true, it should start showing up on more legitimate websites pretty soon.

[JSngry]

Pretty much looks totally bogus to me...

[DukeCity]

He was signifyin'!

Basically, I think he was pretty much telling Jackson to fuck off. There was allegedly no love at all between those two back then, remember.

Yeah, I get that. Still, I think it might have signified something a little more significant if he had actually played some shit on the geetar (clearly, he wasn't "feeling" the guitar player's set-up), or if he had actually done some sangin', or even done some actual dancing (other than the JB mic stand schtick).

Seems like he was just signifying the "idea" of his Prince-osity, rather than demonstrating the actuality of his talents (which I think are considerable). I still call "bullshit". YMMV :bwallace2:

I never thought about this before: "Prince" vs. "King of Pop". Which title/name was given first?

[Quincy]

Pretty much looks totally bogus to me...

It cracks me up how there's a lower case "i" used for the pronoun in Jordan's quotes. Supposedly the reporter is transcribing from a tape so it's not like the guy Twittered it in lower case. The punctuation is inconsistent and oddly spaced. I may sound like one of my doddering teachers from grade school, but if you want me to believe your story at least make a half-ass effort at capitalization and punctuation. Yikes, I feel kind of doddering myself now.

[BruceH]

Funny. Looks like a webcomic.

[Ken Dryden]

Ever remember the Home Alone poster parody, with Michael Jackson behind Macauley Culkin?

I think I'll go play Frank Zappa's "Why Don't You Like Me." (He's oxygenated, his nose is deflated and he thinks he looks good to you.)

[Jazzmoose]

Jackson dies, almost takes Internet with him

June 26, 2009 -- Updated 1902 GMT (0302 HKT)

By Linnie Rawlinson and Nick Hunt

LONDON, England (CNN) -- How many people does it take to break the Internet? On June 25, we found out it's just one -- if that one is Michael Jackson.

Raul Orozco's portrayal of Michael Jackson as the Twitter fail whale

Jackson's death caused Twitter outages, as portrayed by Raul Orozco in this take on Twitter's fail whale

Click to view previous image

1 of 3

Click to view next image

The biggest showbiz story of the year saw the troubled star take a good slice of the Internet with him, as the ripples caused by the news of his death swept around the globe.

"Between approximately 2:40 p.m. PDT and 3:15 p.m. PDT today, some Google News users experienced difficulty accessing search results for queries related to Michael Jackson," a Google spokesman told CNET, which also reported that Google News users complained that the service was inaccessible for a time. At its peak, Google Trends rated the Jackson story as "volcanic."

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/26/mic...rnet/index.html

[Big Al]

My late wife Helen always maintained she thought that MJ was weird, but not a pederast. She thought that he settled this case to just make it go away even though it was pure fantasy for money, and she thought that he did love children and did want to be with children in intimate, close ways but that he wouldn't abuse or hurt children.

It was just her gut feeling. I wasn't as sure as she, but I felt she could have been right. She would enjoy seeing that confession from Chandler and hoped it was true.

That's exactly my wife's feeling. I'm in agreement with you.

All I know is this is a tragic ending to what was becoming an increasingly sad existence.

Just wondering: in ten years, what will people remember about MJ: his music or his celebrity? Think about it: the most recent work anyone's referenced is BAD and that came out.... over 20 years ago? I agree that THRILLER set a boatload of trends, and that millions of people were touched by his music in those halcyon days of the early 80's. But, since then?

These days, if you were to hear MJ on the radio, it was more likely to be "news" (so-called entertainment news) instead of anything music-related.

[Niko]

That's exactly my wife's feeling. I'm in agreement with you.

All I know is this is a tragic ending to what was becoming an increasingly sad existence.

Just wondering: in ten years, what will people remember about MJ: his music or his celebrity? Think about it: the most recent work anyone's referenced is BAD and that came out.... over 20 years ago? I agree that THRILLER set a boatload of trends, and that millions of people were touched by his music in those halcyon days of the early 80's. But, since then?

These days, if you were to hear MJ on the radio, it was more likely to be "news" (so-called entertainment news) instead of anything music-related.

in my world (born 1981), jackson was always a celebrity in the first place... i definitely was aware of him from the age of ten on or so (his nose and stuff) but did not really hear his music until three or four years ago (to find that i had heard some of the songs before, of course)

Edited June 27, 2009 by Niko

[papsrus]

Jackson dies, almost takes Internet with him

June 26, 2009 -- Updated 1902 GMT (0302 HKT)

By Linnie Rawlinson and Nick Hunt

LONDON, England (CNN) -- How many people does it take to break the Internet? On June 25, we found out it's just one -- if that one is Michael Jackson.

Raul Orozco's portrayal of Michael Jackson as the Twitter fail whale

Jackson's death caused Twitter outages, as portrayed by Raul Orozco in this take on Twitter's fail whale

Click to view previous image

1 of 3

Click to view next image

The biggest showbiz story of the year saw the troubled star take a good slice of the Internet with him, as the ripples caused by the news of his death swept around the globe.

"Between approximately 2:40 p.m. PDT and 3:15 p.m. PDT today, some Google News users experienced difficulty accessing search results for queries related to Michael Jackson," a Google spokesman told CNET, which also reported that Google News users complained that the service was inaccessible for a time. At its peak, Google Trends rated the Jackson story as "volcanic."

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/26/mic...rnet/index.html

I think Organissimo was experiencing slowdowns just prior to his death. ... Ahead of the curve once again.

[SGUD missile]

I think Organissimo was experiencing slowdowns just prior to his death. ... Ahead of the curve once again.

[sheldonm]

Even Mark in Indiana knows PeteAbe. He happens to write the most popular baseball blog in New York: Lower Hudson Valley AKA Journal-News "LoHud" baseball blog

I happen to live in Westchester County, but wouldn't be caught dead reading that rag!

The sports reporting has won more AP awards in the last three years than any other paper in NY.

That may be so, but the Journal News is still a rag.

Anyway, at least we know there will be a Michael Jackson week on Idol next year!!!

Btw, MJ shared a birthday with Charlie Parker, Dinah Washington, Rebecca DeMornay and ..........ME!!!

How does that make you all feel?

...indifference .

Good for you! I was just trying to put all this nonsense in perspective for ya. Bird, someone we all worship, is just as flawed as MJ and has the same b'day!

I'm not sure anyone here needed it put into perspective....I'm not sure anyone here is having a melt down or is over reacting over this.

m

Edited June 27, 2009 by sheldonm

[papsrus]

I have only three things to add to this humongous Michael Jackson megacyberwake:

1. The overwhelming overreportage, interviews, canned obits, and other superfluous

dreck on TV while failing to report on the IMPORTANT stuff ..like actual news, whats going on in Iran, what congress is doing behind our back, and other events . The American media needs a giant dose of Ritalin for it's obvious case of chronic attention disorder. Jackson might have been a very creative pop icon but if I hear ONE MORE rerun of "Thriller" or "Billie Jean" , I think I'm gonna bo ballistic!!

:crazy:

2. This canonization of MJ is insulting to other black talents of our generation : mainly Stevie Wonder ,who's written FAR more hit songs of a far higher quality than Jocko ever did and is by FAR the superior singer as well.

3. in the midst of media overkill, why didn't anyone on any network bothering mentioning the death of a TRUE jazz talent - Bud Shank - several weeks back??

Notice, though, that the internet experienced extremely heavy traffic right after his death. A lot of people were hitting web sites that had information about Michael Jackson. That tells you people were pretty aggressively seeking out this information. So, if you're in the news business ...

Just saying.

Although I didn't catch TV's act on this one. I'm sure it was pretty much along the lines of the cartoon posted above.

[Michael Weiss]

We paid tribute playing a little "Rock With You" last night at Smalls.

[ValerieB]

...No one here can claim to know for sure whether or not he molested children.

It's my recollection that he admitted to sleeping with young boys. He just denied molesting them when he was in bed with them.

That's enough to make me disregard whatever talent he had, and whatever music he created.

That and the fact that he paid millions of dollars to the family of the boy, who then refused to testify in the criminal case.

No, we can't claim to know, but the circumstantial evidence sure seems to suggest it pretty clearly.

that Chandler boy has admitted that he lied years ago and was forced to do so by his father who wanted to make some $$$!!!!!!!!!!

[papsrus]

His legacy as an extremely eccentric guy is pretty well established. Whether he was convicted of abusing children or not, a grown man wanting to play with, sleep with, cuddle with other people's children can't be healthy for anyone involved, can it? There are glaring bright lines you don't cross with kids, and he pretty clearly crossed them. Whether his conduct was proven to be criminal is kind of beside the point. ... IMHO.

Would anyone here have let their kids anywhere near the guy? I don't think so.

[JSngry]

Would anyone here have let their kids anywhere near the guy? I don't think so.

Although I think it will be pretty safe from here on out...

[zen archer]

in my world (born 1981), jackson was always a celebrity in the first place... i definitely was aware of him from the age of ten on or so (his nose and stuff) but did not really hear his music until three or four years ago (to find that i had heard some of the songs before, of course)

Well in my world (born 1962) MJ had a huge effect ,from 1970,71,72,73,74 every Christmas there would be a Jackson 5 album or two under the tree. I loved the J5 and even tried to start a fan club around the neighborhood of course not many of my friends back then were fans. I just loved the music and the fros and those clothes, these guys were on TV a lot back then I remember watching the cartoon and they even had their own variety show.

And what about the Goin' Back To Indiana TV special I have that on a boot and was surprised to see that Tito was playing all the solos ....these guys were great.

Here is a funny weird story from my youth back then in the albums they would sell buttons and posters on the inner sleeve that housed the record. So I asked my Mom and Grandfather if they would buy me this really cool poster of the J5 they were all standing looking down into the camera with these wild outfits ....so anyway my grandfather looks at me and said "you can't put this poster on your bedroom wall' and i am really confused and I am like why not?.....'Because it will give you nightmares"

Nightmares ????....these guys were my HEROES it took me years to finally figure out why he said that and what it meant.

R.I.P Michael and thanks for the great music !

[sidewinder]

but then i got a 4 euro bread for free so i'm not complaining...

One of those fancy pumpernickel and sunflower breads?

it was called "urbrot" (ancient bread?), and seems to be a pretty ordinary bread with rye, tastes excellent though, bought much older bread at the full price elsewhere often enough, no idea why it was priced so high (actually never went to that store because it looked like an expensive place from the outside but they got this nice box with vegetables that still look half-decent, today i got broccoli for 1 euro a kilogramm and it's even organic...)

Nice ! I'm a late rye bread convert. Much more nourishing than most of the wheat-based stuff you get here and very, very good for the blood sugar level - but it takes a while to get used to the taste (very heavy to the typical English palate). The final straw for me was when I started noticing the sweetener they add to much of the packaged 'white' bread in the shops. You can even buy German brot in the supermarkets here now - something unthinkable 20 years ago. Maybe the Polish immigrants here initiated the demand? Whatever - gets a from me.

Sorry for the deviation...

[Dan Gould]

The NYT had an article about his finances that was a little less negative than that WSJ piece. They pointed out too that with the renewed sales of his music and the potential value of his image (how long before there's an MJ plate and an MJ gold coin?) the estate has tremendous potential for income streams, while at the same time, Michael's out-of-control spending, which put him in the financial mess in the first place, is over. Much lower expenses, big jump in revenue and the potential for more = a lot of money for everyone, from parents to siblings to children.

If they aren't too money-grubbing, and considering what happened after James Brown died, I wouldn't count on it. Like Chuck said, a huge payday for lawyers is coming up.

Edited June 28, 2009 by Dan Gould

[Soulstation1]

I would agree that Stevie Wonder has had a better musical career

But he never had kids dress up and try to look like him especially white kids

No artist since the 1980's has been as hot as he was during the run of the Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad albums and music videos PERIOD

I was born in 1967 and.MJ's music has been in my life since day one

Every kid white or black wanted to be in the Jackson 5

Every boy band that has come out since the J5 owes and pays respect to the J5

As I stated earlier I just hope their is some money for his kids

[Peter Johnson]

We paid tribute playing a little "Rock With You" last night at Smalls.

And it was terrific!

[Soulstation1]

One other thing

The ONLY kids that should ever be in a grown man's bed or bedroom should be his own kids and nobody elses

IMO

[sidewinder]

Totally agree, SS1.

The Jackson 5 certainly hit the UK like a bolt of lightning - they came from nowhere and next thing you know they have their own cartoons on the TV. Around the time the Harlem Globetrotters had their own cartoon show too I think.

[Aggie87]

Here's another strange claim - Debbie Rowe says that Michael Jackson is not the biological father of Prince Michael I and Paris.... if you believe Perez Hilton's website. She also claims that she and Jackson never had sex during their marriage at all.