Michael Jackson, R.I.P.

So, it was merely good fortune - in the right place at the right time? - MJ lasted so long in the music industry or produced the best selling album of all time.

Not real talent, no. Just blind luck...or, more probably, affirmative action.

What is fake talent and how does one get it?

Search me, but don't bother asking the likes of Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney or Roger Waters.

You know, if one is upset because you only have a choice of 125 programs to choose from on the television it is time for a new hobby.

Time for a more expensive cable package you mean!

I was thinking of this in relation to somebody like Kurt Cobain. However unlike Kurt Cobain, Michael has died several years after the height of what we all praise him for.
I heard a quote from somebody that was something along the lines of "I just hope we can remember Michael for his music and not all that other stuff." Well the other stuff was the man and his life. This sort of thing makes me wonder about the relationship between a human and their work. Some people that you might not get along with in real life could produce some things that you greatly value.
I think this shows that music is beyond the musician as art is beyond the artist. Music, songs, melodies, rhythms etc. already exist. It is up to us to find them. When somebody finds great music we praise them.
Since I was not around for Jackson's heyday, the weight of his musical impact seems external to my opinion or impression of him. Despite this, the incredible influence of the music he found on the music people look for today has been made a bit more clear as people are massively mourning his death.
This is a very significant loss in the world of talented musicians. What we are seeing is the difference between those who understand his music and those whose consciousness is most freshly immersed in negative tabloid headlines.
I would really like to find what I can gain from the music that Michael found. Maybe I will go buy Thriller or something. Then again, I may not.

"in the right place at the right time"

MJ, Madonna and several others were at the height of their careers when MTV actually played video's in the mid 80's, giving them free exposure to the masses...meanwhile Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Roger Waters kinda fought the idea of video's probably because they were rolling in dough already...

if my memory serves me Metallica at first refused to make any video's until they relented and made a video for ONE...

It's been over two months since MJ died. Am I the only one who thinks it is disgusting that his corpse is still being paraded around, apparently to keep his name in the news, while books, magazines, and every huckster peddling cheap-ass trinkets with his pasted-on photo are trying to cash in? Several cable channels have non-stop bios and CD compilation ads ad nauseum. That's fine if people really want to waste their money on that crap

but...

Just bury him. please.

Hmmm...I don't really know how to advise you.

Perhaps switching to a different channel (Fox?) whenever a gushing report on MJ appears. Perhaps ignoring the continuing bruhaha as well as you can.

Try writing to the Jackson family and asking them to just bury him...recommending that they should just forever wonder without any sort of conclusion how it was their loved-one died.

I'd say it is absolutely clear how he died, and you know how little TV I watch. He was addicted to painkillers, à la Limbaugh, and found a compliant quack to write prescriptions for him, unlike Limbaugh. What else is there to know?

But I confess, I am not aware of the circus strat describes - probably because I don't watch TV. Wouldn't hucksters peddling trinkets be offensive to the Jackson family?

EDIT: OTOH, I will definitely be here on APFFN, flogging BoaB memorial gilded hand-painted plates with his high school graduation photo on them when he kicks off.

If I can make myself wait that long.

IF you survive me, the likelihood of which, after that last post, I have serious doubts.

I have to say, the nationwide conversion to digital has been a fantastic blessing. I never upgraded, and now I'm incapable of watching television, and my life has become infinitely better.

Get your limited edition, signed and numbered commemorative plate for the low, low price of only $39.95! Act now, stock is limited and the orders are pouring in!!

You forget I know where you live.

But wait! There's more!