DISQUS

lamh32 · 4 months ago

Have you actually watched any of the actual memoral service. Not the "pre-show" done by the media.

If you had, then you would see what I see. A funeral attended by not just the family of the deceased but friends of the deceased who happen to be celebrity.

The ACTUAL SERVICE is being done tastefully. And the speakers are actual friends and colleagues of MJ.

ezpz · 4 months ago

I agree too.
It was very moving and sincere and tasteful.
When the daughter spoke, I just lost it.
I don't know how anyone could have seen that and NOT break out in tears.
She was so pure as only children can be, and obviously in a lot of pain.

I wish her and the rest of the family healing.
Loving thoughts to them in their time of sadness.

R.I.P. Michael

shell · 4 months ago

I agree. A very tasteful funeral.

KarenMrsLloydRichards · 4 months ago

The Helicopter Shots of Our Lives, our Declining Empire:


1994: "Suicidal" OJ on the freeway.

2009: Dead MJ on the freeway.

ezpz · 4 months ago

And those are the two incidents that epitomize for you "our Declining Empire"?

Nothing in between?
Nothing before 94?
No "freeway" incidents involving white people maybe?

Interesting and revealing perspective.

nicho · 4 months ago

I just want to know who's paying for all this. LA just laid off a couple of thousand teachers because they couldn't afford to pay them, and now they have to provide K9 dogs, 3,200 cops, helicopters, tens of thousands of gallons of gas, and street cleanup from this circus, not to mention tens of thousands of commuters being kept from freeways. I'm willing to bet the leeches in the Jackson family won't be chipping in.

I'd much rather see kids being educated.

BeccaMorn · 4 months ago

Just my own $0.02, but I found the media coverage to be morbid, creepy, and utterly without dignity.

Okay, great -- Michael Jackson was a pop music superstar. He also apparently had a deeply abusive upbringing which led to all sorts of increasingly bizarre behavior later on. His passing is a tragic event.

But it simply does not compare to the stuff that's going on in the world *right now*. Multiple wars, with hundreds of casualties each day. Repression. Pollution and global warming. A world economy in the toilet.

But no, apparently we're all supposed to get weepy for days over a guy who had access to more fame and money than God, and to whom nobody ever seems to have said, "No, that's really not such a good idea."

MJ had EVERYTHING and appears to have blown it on a lifestyle beyond lavish, in futile attempts to resculpt himself into someone else, and to recapture the childhood that was stolen from him.

Quasi-factual Bio-Movie of the epic tragic arc of Michael Jackson's life in 5, 4, 3, 2...

jenjen64 · 4 months ago

Have you forgotten his philanthropic endeavors? Or "We are the World"?

cowboyneok · 4 months ago

Give me his money, and I'll show you philanthropic endeavors!

shell · 4 months ago

And by the way ... when my father died, we actually LAUGHED at his funeral. Why? The pastor had asked my brother and me to tell any story we wanted that went to the essence of him ... and he spoke them at the funeral. So -- there was laughing, there was crying. Afterwards, too.

I am sick to death of this about SOME of America -- everything HAS to be one way -- some bizarro way most Americans are. When will America ever return to INDIVIDUALISM?

blueoysterjoe · 4 months ago

I am still waiting for an Ayatollah style riot-funeral where crowds take Michael Jackson's coffin and dump it in the street. I was surprisingly saddened and maybe even a little depressed when MJ died, but holy crap.

TrappedinaRedState · 4 months ago

I find that funerals and memorial services in general creep me out. When you have someone who is as odd as MJ and it's run by his family who are also quite odd it's bound to turn into a sideshow.

But if you look at the live feed on CNN and pay attention to the Facebook feed you'll see people from literally all over the world coming together to mourn his passing.

Uniting the world if even for a few moments. How amazing is that?

publicsteele · 4 months ago

This was a memorial, not a funeral. When your son creates a billion dollar empire, changes an industry, and drops dead you'll have the opportunity to choose whether or not photos are taken at the memorial. If when you die you are famous to the point to inspire road block coverage, a helicopter may broadcast the motorcade carrying your dead body. It won't make you OJ Simpson.

To smile or not to smile. Critiquing the behavior of mourners is completely classless. To those commenters who believe they know so much, may you have the benefit of those around you holding their derision until you are buried. Call me traditional.

John Aravosis · 4 months ago

I don't know, where I'm from, mugging for a camera, with a smile, when someone's dead is the definition of classless.

mirth · 4 months ago

Ditto, allowing a grieving little girl to sob into a microphone before a worldwide audience. Classless. And shameful.

doggril · 4 months ago

No, publicsteele, this was a memorial, not an awards show. There are a lot of irrational things mourners do, but mugging for the camera as if you'd just won a prize tends not to be among them.

lisainWA · 4 months ago

I’m not a huge MJ fan. I grew up with his music… it’s part of the soundtrack of my life and so I do feel a little loss at his passing. I also am reminded of my own immortality. I wanted to watch the memorial service. It seemed entirely appropriate and entirely tasteful. I turned the TV on when it was time for the service and turned it off when it was over.

John and all of you people who are bitching about the “circus” need to understand that there wouldn’t be a circus if there weren’t an audience. You are just as culpable for participating so how can you complain? When looking for someone or something to blame for the current state of this country’s overindulgent fascination with all things celebrity, try looking at the man in the mirror.

zunaric · 4 months ago

Well said. Another thing I don't get is when people start complaining about the costs involved with something like this or a few weeks ago the Laker's parade. The amount of tax revenue generated by the Jackson empire has to run into 10's of millions of dollars directly, just locally. Plus how many jobs were created, not just in music production but distribution, stores, videos, dvd's, MTV, tabloids, merchandise and on and on. I cannot stand people trying to find reasons to complain without justification.

magnolia49 · 4 months ago

J.P. where are you???
I am dying here.
The denial that exists around the mystique of Michael Jackson has me stunned!!
This planet stood still and watched the glorification of a pedophile. No matter how talented, he preyed on little boys.
This is part of the end of the golden days.

Kevin Wright · 4 months ago

magnolia did you see him touch any kids? if so please present your evidence...you can have your opinion...but you cant say yours is the correct one..nor can i but at least mine errors on the side of innocence before a court of law and no criminal charges not just my gut.

sonofloud · 4 months ago

The whole disgusting spectacle from charging people to attend to selling t shirts, fits right in with the way Michael Jackson has been used and exploited his whole life by his father, the media, and the entertainment industry.
Why should his funeral be any different?

KerrynowCampau · 4 months ago

They ARE charging admission! AND selling t shirts????!!!

Wow, that is gross....

hopper_i · 4 months ago

No they're not charging admission. Have some respect.

gaydem · 4 months ago

Yes...have some respect and say some prayers for Los Angelenos who must pay for this spectacle, both financially and with curbed nearby highway access for as long as the spectacle lasts. Vey!

leathersmith · 4 months ago

remind me to not tune into the news for a couple days

nothing like this happened when Jerry Garcia died

ezpz · 4 months ago

If anyone missed seeing Paris, the daughter, it's worth seeing:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/07/michae...

He was her Daddy.

KarenMrsLloydRichards · 4 months ago

Easy for her to say: she was never dangled from a hotel balcony six stories above a city street.

lisainWA · 4 months ago

Seems indecent to make a joke in reply to a video of a little girl expressing raw emotion over the loss of her father.

ezpz · 4 months ago

Obviously, I agree.
Thank you for saying that.

ezpz · 4 months ago

So much for "leave a tender moment alone".

Sad that judgment cannot be suspended for even just the 20 or 30 seconds that it took this girl to give us a view of Michael through her pure and pained heart.

Not even 20 seconds, let alone the few days following his death.

Very sad.

alexa · 4 months ago

lol

hit_escape · 4 months ago

The best coverage was the ceremony itself. The commentators just shut up and let it play. Once it was over, the noise started again. No matter what you think of him, he was a human being with all it's faults and people loved him. No more, no less.

JoeCHI · 4 months ago

One less child-molester and pedophile in the world. Good riddance!

shell · 4 months ago

But ... there's you! When are you gonna really make the world less one?

And AmericaBlog, before you delete this message and ban me, perhaps you should ban the one who accuses Michael Jackson of child molestation and pedophilia. He was found not guilty of this -- in a court of law, right? Yes, I know many scream "OJ!" Not even close. Oh yeah, they were both black males. That speaks volumes.

Kevin · 4 months ago

Wonders if everyone remembers Princess Di's funeral...it was very similiar to this..and she wasn't even "our" princess.

jenjen64 · 4 months ago

Or when Elvis died..or John Lennon...

Indigo · 4 months ago

Nil nisi bonum de mortuis.
Thank you for all the wonderful music, Michael.
R.I.P.

GusII · 4 months ago

It is sad his funeral has such a ‘red carpet’ treatment, but wasn’t that his life?

JohnInTexas · 4 months ago

I kept watching for the white Bronco. Apparently there was quite a run on black Escalades and Range Rovers though. The schmoozing for the cameras was the creepiest, probably Joe Jackson's idea.

tacitus · 4 months ago

They could have chosen a photo above the stage that didn't make Michael Jackson look quite so manic.

scottinsf · 4 months ago

This is one of those absurd events that America does best!

I'm intrigued by the insanity of it all.

kittycatastrophe · 4 months ago

It looks like a circus of photo-ops but Micheal's life had become a circus over the last 20 years so I guess its all an appropriate send off for him.

sbjules · 4 months ago

I thought I could avoid any mention of Jackson here, but silly me.

saml · 4 months ago

this is another way to announce to the world, the civil war is over.

KerrynowCampau · 4 months ago

Please tell me that people aren't being charged admission

Are they selling beer and peanuts?

nicho · 4 months ago

No, the peanuts are for the elephants.

AndrewIN · 4 months ago

Too young to have experienced another celebrity passing of a similar caliber. Was Elvis' or Lennon's deth such a spectacle? I know it was before 24 hour news and the internets, but were they comparable?

nicho · 4 months ago

Lennon and the other Beatles had a profound effect on music and were much more influential than MJ ever was. We're watching this non-stop gushing over a guy here who hasn't had a song worth listening to in over 20 years and who was known mostly for his increasingly freakish behavior over the last two decades.

Baal · 4 months ago

Entirely depends on how you define influence. Michael Jackson more than anyone else opened up venues like MTV to black artists through his unprecedented universal appeal at the time. That is not even debatable. (Given that, it is sad that he evidently loathed his own blackness). At the time of John Lennon's death, he had not done much of any interest in a long time. Elvis was as much of a caricature as Michael Jackson.

You may not like his schtick (my on tastes run more to Miles Davis and Bill Evans), but there is not doubt to me that a lot of more recent artists have pretty much stolen Michael Jackson's act (including his less talented sister). She is to her brother like the Monkees to the Beatles.

mngreg · 4 months ago

John Lennon was killed in 1980 - just nine years after his most influental song, "Imagine" was popular. Can anyone come up with anything important or significant Michael Jackson did during the nine years preceding his death? Comparing him to Lennon or to Elvis is like comparing a Big Mac to a steak. Fast food can be filling, but it doesn't stick with you very long.

Baal · 4 months ago

Like I said, it's not a question of whether or not you like his music, it was a question of influence. Michael Jackson had an enormous influence on music and the way it is performed, like it or not, regardless of what an incredibly weird person he became. (I personally do not own a single record of any of these three musicians.) One other thing to note is that Michael Jackson lived ten years longer than John Lennon. At age 31 or thereabouts, he definitely had a bunch of stuff that was copied by other artists.

nicho · 4 months ago

Really? There were no black musicians performing in major venues before Michael Jackson? Quick, someone needs to inform Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louie Armstrong.

Jackson's major contribution was that he introduced special effects and pyrotechnics, which, in the ensuing years, have eclipsed talent as the main focus of the show.

Most popular performers today are shit, but as long as they have 120 backup dancers, strobe lights, pyrotechnics and 45 costume changes, the suckers will go see them. This is his legacy.

If it weren't for MJ, people like Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears would be selling curly fries somewhere.

Butch1 · 4 months ago

One could add to that list,
Nate King Cole
Billie Holiday
Nina Simone
The Platters
The Temptations
Marvin Gay
Aretha Franklin
Diana Ross
Dina Washington
Gladys Knight
Stevie Wonder
Fats Domino
Marian Anderson
Odetta
Duke Ellington
Cab Calloway
Leontine Price
Johnny Mathis
Mahalia Jackson
and on and on . . .

They were a part of black entertainment that opened the doors for black performers of today. These artists crossed the racial barriers long before MJ and the Jackson Five did.

hopper_i · 4 months ago

you're an idiot. shut up.

threadmonitor · 4 months ago

Uh uh.

If you want commenting privileges, telling others to shut up isn't how to keep them.

Consider this a warning...

hopper_i · 4 months ago

whatever. I supported this site with hits and cash from the beginning. you say this bs to me but you don't do shit about the people accusing him of being a pedophile when a court of law says different. ban me. I don't care

threadmonitor · 4 months ago

Done.

KarenMrsLloydRichards · 4 months ago

Drunken/stoned Jackson grief here. Sad.

KarenMrsLloydRichards · 4 months ago

No they were not. In those days, only three networks (and PBS) with one nightly newscast. Cuts away from soaps during the day, I seem to remember.

Lots of newsprint generated, and attention-grabbing vigils and hysterical mourning. But on TV, it wasn't 24/7.

An_American_Karol · 4 months ago

No, not even close. However, John Lennon did get a strawberry field in Central Park and Elvis had his Graceland.

When Elvis died the media concentrated on his drug abuse more than his talent, and the media concentrated more on the killer of Lennon than Lennon himself.

An_American_Karol · 4 months ago

There will be $500,000,000 worth of memorials and tributes to Michael Jackson. This is the freebie.
There are creditors to be paid and talentless hangers on (family members) to support.

scottinsf · 4 months ago

I completely agree Karol. I'm kind of surprised by the "Michael Jackson is going to bankrupt LA" tone from some folks. It's silly and misplaced frustration I guess.

Asterix · 4 months ago

No kidding. Someone's got to pay for that gold-plated coffin.

When I go, I want a cardboard box.

tigergrrldc · 4 months ago

I can kind of understand the photo-op because everyone is going to want to see who was at the funeral. Better to do it this way, than having the paparazzi running after people.

hopper_i · 4 months ago

We not the last three Michael Jackson hating posts and threads enough? Seriously. I like this site but I'm not sure I want to come here any more. You people are a bunch of ....

An_American_Karol · 4 months ago

hopper, I loved Michael Jackson. He will forever be the greatest world talent.
Where do you see a hate for Jackson on here?

nicho · 4 months ago

I don't hate him. He was a sad, tragic figure. He had a great talent, but his star burned bright and then fizzled quickly, as he descended into a bizarre cartoon character, finally being famous simply for being famous.

Coffacuppee · 4 months ago

Good grie, I agree totally. It is morbid. And tacky. Jesse Jackson and posse posing up there like they were on the fucking red carpet was not needed. Cheap and should have been expected from him. And the blame for this also goes to the 24hr cable media trying to fill their daily time allocation. On CNN they just had an exchange about where the name "Blanket" came from. Pitiful. Let the guy go and stop trying to make money on his dead back.

TheOriginalLiz · 4 months ago

No one does crass and tasteless like the msm

jenjen64 · 4 months ago

You are absolutely right about that. The MSM are nothing but prostitutes selling themselves to the highest in order to get the highest ratings. Plastic people living in plastic land. That's why I get my news off the 'net.

Freday63 · 4 months ago

We all knew it was going to be a three ring circus.

shell · 4 months ago

Was it? I didn't see it. What were you watching?

Freday63 · 4 months ago

I don't know who is worse, MJ fans or Apple Fanboys.

hopper_i · 4 months ago

Seeing how you're talking about most of the world, I would you're in a small minority of total a$$holes.

shell · 4 months ago

Or maybe Freday63s.

Freday63 · 4 months ago

I meant the three ring circus of the media covering this event. I'm a fan of Michael's, I have his music and his music video's on my ipod. But the exploitation of his death at the hands of the media is the real circus.

postdamnit · 4 months ago

Only in America would we have the Michael Jackson Circus!

Never miss an opportunity to make a few bucks I say...

Valentinefrey · 4 months ago

Yes, you do get what you deserve for tuning in John. Stop or we'll tie you up and make you watch reruns of Reagan's funeral.

Dimitte mortuos sepelire mortuos suos.

Poor guy.

Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas · 4 months ago

Either the sound system was borrowed from some high school auditorium near Peoria or Mariah Carey needs to NEVER perform live again.

cowboyneok · 4 months ago

Ha!

magnolia49 · 4 months ago

Kevin--I have read the evidence in the hands of the state of california and you can as well--it is public record--and you show your lack of knowledge on the subject by "errors on the side of innocence" unless, of course, you are speaking of the victims.

kevin · 4 months ago

victims ? what victims? he wasn't convicted of the first charge yes settle out of court (doesn't prove or disprove there was a victim in that case). the second he was convicted of no charge. not even one. so yeah...in my opinion (remember i also acknowledge i wasn't there to see anything happen ever) there wasn't any victims except the accused. and according to the records in the trail...there wasn't sufficient evidence to put a charge on michael jackson so he was exhonrated. (excuse my mispelling)

Rick James Brown · 4 months ago

For a man who loved his mother so much, MJ sure went out of his way to make sure HIS kids had no mom. And now, because he needed intravenous surgical drugs (as opposed to an Ambien) to fall asleep, they have no father either. Truly, truly sad.

cowboyneok · 4 months ago

Oh, Jesse! GET WITH THE PROGRAM! Heh!

Wow, Jackson's dad certainly didn't disappoint. I've never seen a father so happy his son died. Maybe relieved was more a description. What a total tool he is.

cowboyneok · 4 months ago

I'm sorry but I don't really care whether Michael Jackson molested the little boys or not. Well, of course I DO, but it was ENOUGH for a grown man to want to SLEEP with children! Eeeeeeeewwwwwwww! I have enough of a hard time sleeping with another handsome masculine grown man and having him invade my sleep space but thumb sucking kids?!!? That just NEVER made any sense. I get the fact he was Peter Pan-esque but I just don't think that whole, "I tuck them in, and we play soft music and share cookies and milk!" before going to bed is very believable. Its just batshit crazy weirdness. Being a mentor to kids is one thing, but someone his age trying to relive his nonexistent childhood through other children is just creepy. It almost has a vampire like quality to it. "I'm simply trying to suck the souls out of these kids because I never had a childhood! They are so innocent, ya know?" (Yea, kids are innocent but they cry, wet the bed and suck their thumbs, Michael. What's the real attraction? What gives?)

benb · 4 months ago

Yeah, people don't behave linearly when mourning...expect and forgive crazy behavior right now, I think.

Incidentally, it crossed my mind, with all the speculation about his final resting place, that perhaps, like it was rumored with Walt Disney, Michael Jackson is destined to spend an indefinite amount of time chilling out in a thermos of liquid nitrogen. It makes so much sense.