Never Can Say Goodbye

It's tough to write an erudite obit/tribute to Michael Jackson, because I'm still shocked...however...I go on...

I've had this out in bars, cabs, on docks, on decks and more times than I ever wanted. I'm referring to the argument about Michael Jackson's body of work that I find untainted by his public relations and media management masochism.

Mike was great, remains great and always will.



No feelings are changed by his death, and the internet is boiling over with opinions, "Beat It" will be referencing the issue to death or the dead horse of an enduring legacy. In as simple terms as I can wring it out:

Michael Jackson was an incredible entertainer who became a lamentable, frightening and often miserable public figure.



His death is sad, but with his modern visage fading from the press, we'll be left with the music, which reflects the spectrum of human emotion better than anyone's. This is how I've been remembering him since the early 1990's.

Whatever demons were haunting him, I hope he's free from. Few artists convincingly display the sheer force of their gift. The otherworldly, intangible power that moves them to not only create, but transcend the medium. Michael wrote anthems for and from all the hearts of the planet at once.




I only wish that Michael himself could read the loving tributes that are cascading from around a world that he has seperated from and no doubt felt alien to.

Listening to these albums tonight, I don't hear a lil popstar with an afro and a billion dollar smile, I don't hear a spry twentysomething fully branded funky juggernaut moonwalking his way into every pantheon and stratosphere we have for entertainers, and I don't hear the besmirched skeleton of the circus of the last decade.

I hear the song and dance man, who wrote a tune called "Bad" that was the best thing I'd ever popped in my Fisher Price tapedeck. All it said on the tape was "Michael Jackson."

People who love music, LOVE Michael Jackson.

I was never afraid of him, only for him, and there's one less reason to be afraid.

Michael Jackson - Someone In The Dark



*Drawing by Eli Escobar (at age 8)

DOM (Died On Monday)

I know it seems arbitrary and ridiculous when I choose some notable deaths and ignore others. It's not ignoring, just Bea Arthur was too tough to blog about. I grieved about Bea as you might expect, by watching Golden Girls and by ogling Blanche as I touch myself under the covers. Just kidding (not kidding). No. Just kidding.

Dom DeLuise, peace.

The Good Harper

The Harper's Index is now in a searchable online form. This is a really big deal. Not just for those of us who own several sweater vests, pairs of khakis (not for work), or who sometimes yell "PARASITE MOTHEFUCKER SHITHEAD!" at speeches on the television. Since I can only assume you're an internet user, it's big for you too.

For those of you unfamiliar with the index, it's a unique and always funny, fascinating and critical piece of the world's best magazine. Read below for a sample:

HARPER'S INDEX ONLINE

10/90Number of National Guard officers assigned to monitor a Grateful Dead concert in Foxboro, Massachusetts, last July: 40

10/91 Number of tabs of LSD confiscated at a series of Grateful Dead concerts in Landover, Maryland, in March: 36,442

2/95Number of times Walter Cronkite has attended a Grateful Dead concert: 2

7/03Number of Grateful Dead concerts attended by columnist Ann Coulter: 67

GRATEFUL DEAD - Touch Of Grey

Ok, bye...

Dead Celebrity Media Deathwatch Internet Newswire Blogger Information Transmission Communique Dirge

Actor, Heath Ledger dead, near some pills. Best work was ahead of him.

He was awesome as Skip Englbloom in Lords of Dogtown. I was looking forward to seeing his joker, not to mention The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

The internet conducts its simple and pathetic sympathy symphony.



T REX - Life's a Gas

"There are so many other ways to celebrate or memorialize without harm. Light a beautiful candle, do some volunteer work, make a donation in your loved one's name but Please Don't Release Helium Balloons. Homing doves or pigeons are a thoughtful and considerate alternative. "