I suppose I should have expected it. This country has been so fascinated by celebrity icons, and the aspiration to become wealthy and famous with shows like "American Idol" and "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" that it is no surprise that the death and burial of a pop singer commands top billing in the news. But we haven't seen this much hoopla since Elvis died and left the building. Today Michael Jackson moon walks his way to eternity, with all the media coverage of JFK's death, and then some.
In a nation of never ending distraction our media has piled on to the story with the typical frenzy that spells: "Big Audience Numbers Here." All the major news anchors have been flown in to lead the "team coverage." CNN tells us "The Web Braces For Michael Jackson Onslaught" forgetting that they are in the vanguard of the media shock troops leading the charge. Then they ask me these weighty questions this morning:
1) Q: How are you honoring MJ today? Answer: I'm not. I never honored him in life, so his death holds no particular meaning for me.
2) Q: Do I want to know places to go to honor Michael Jackson? Answer: No, I don't. Do you have any real news to report?
3) Q: Who do I think has appeared in a mysterious image in a tree, Jesus or Michael Jackson? Answer: I could care less And why is this ridiculous story on page 1 of your web site?
Folks, Michael Jackson was not a legend. He was just a pop singer trying to hold his life together with a cocktail of anti-depressants and and his own mini version of Disneyland on an estate mired in debt. He did what he did well enough to sell millions of records and build up a palatial playground he called Neverland where he could continue his bizarre, isolated Peter-Pan existence as he slowly morphed into a pale moon walking image of the Phantom of the Opera. I was never thrilled by "Thriller," nor did I ever buy or listen to a single album he produced--just a matter of taste.
Those that loved him can happily answer CNNs big three questions of the day, but this is all I can offer, a continued amazement that, with so many other issues of grave importance before us, the nation can stupidly focus it's attention on the death of one man. Congress itself is locked in a debate over whether to call the man a "lowlife pervert," or a "global humanitarian." According to NY Rep. Peter King, Jackson was glorified while the nation ignores the struggle and efforts of so many others: teachers, firefighters, police, veterans.
I think the nation just would rather forget all the real news out there today, getting worse each week: the foreclosures, the job loss, the bills piling up, the credit card deliquincies at a record high, the empty shopping malls. Instead we indulge ourselves in this media love fest for the King of Pop, who now joins the King of Rock in the hallowed halls of all bygone celebrity demigods.
In his recent post "The Man In The Mirror" James Howard Kunstler tried to explain this strange national fascination for Jacko: "Eerie parallels resound between the sordid demise of pop singer Michael Jackson and the fate of the nation. Like the United States, Michael Jackson was spectacularly bankrupt, reportedly in the range of $800-million, which is rather a lot for an individual. Had he lived on a few more years, he might have qualified for his own TARP program...Like the USA, Michael Jackson was a has-been. He hadn't recorded a song worth listening to in over two decades...He existed strictly on image, an anorectic figure nourished by moonbeams of attention...In his last years, he even looked a bit like Nosferatu, the personification of the un-dead, and his fascination with ghouls was the basis for his biggest hit way back in the last century. A zombie nation deserves a zombie mascot. He was a poseur, vamping in weird military outfits as though he were a five-star general in the Honduran army."
So in some ways we can see the nostalgic attention paid to a pop singer as an image of our own pining for the old life we had here in America, a life that we can feel slipping away, month by month, and year by year. So today millions and millions will sit enthralled by the coverage, while I chide myself inwardly for taking the time to even write this post about the subject. I hate to be a killjoy, but the fate of Michael Jackson is just not important, not news, and not something a nation should mourn in this way. I suppose we have to wait ten years for the postage stamp now... Sigh.
Just my humble opinion.
In a nation of never ending distraction our media has piled on to the story with the typical frenzy that spells: "Big Audience Numbers Here." All the major news anchors have been flown in to lead the "team coverage." CNN tells us "The Web Braces For Michael Jackson Onslaught" forgetting that they are in the vanguard of the media shock troops leading the charge. Then they ask me these weighty questions this morning:
1) Q: How are you honoring MJ today? Answer: I'm not. I never honored him in life, so his death holds no particular meaning for me.
2) Q: Do I want to know places to go to honor Michael Jackson? Answer: No, I don't. Do you have any real news to report?
3) Q: Who do I think has appeared in a mysterious image in a tree, Jesus or Michael Jackson? Answer: I could care less And why is this ridiculous story on page 1 of your web site?
Folks, Michael Jackson was not a legend. He was just a pop singer trying to hold his life together with a cocktail of anti-depressants and and his own mini version of Disneyland on an estate mired in debt. He did what he did well enough to sell millions of records and build up a palatial playground he called Neverland where he could continue his bizarre, isolated Peter-Pan existence as he slowly morphed into a pale moon walking image of the Phantom of the Opera. I was never thrilled by "Thriller," nor did I ever buy or listen to a single album he produced--just a matter of taste.
Those that loved him can happily answer CNNs big three questions of the day, but this is all I can offer, a continued amazement that, with so many other issues of grave importance before us, the nation can stupidly focus it's attention on the death of one man. Congress itself is locked in a debate over whether to call the man a "lowlife pervert," or a "global humanitarian." According to NY Rep. Peter King, Jackson was glorified while the nation ignores the struggle and efforts of so many others: teachers, firefighters, police, veterans.
I think the nation just would rather forget all the real news out there today, getting worse each week: the foreclosures, the job loss, the bills piling up, the credit card deliquincies at a record high, the empty shopping malls. Instead we indulge ourselves in this media love fest for the King of Pop, who now joins the King of Rock in the hallowed halls of all bygone celebrity demigods.
In his recent post "The Man In The Mirror" James Howard Kunstler tried to explain this strange national fascination for Jacko: "Eerie parallels resound between the sordid demise of pop singer Michael Jackson and the fate of the nation. Like the United States, Michael Jackson was spectacularly bankrupt, reportedly in the range of $800-million, which is rather a lot for an individual. Had he lived on a few more years, he might have qualified for his own TARP program...Like the USA, Michael Jackson was a has-been. He hadn't recorded a song worth listening to in over two decades...He existed strictly on image, an anorectic figure nourished by moonbeams of attention...In his last years, he even looked a bit like Nosferatu, the personification of the un-dead, and his fascination with ghouls was the basis for his biggest hit way back in the last century. A zombie nation deserves a zombie mascot. He was a poseur, vamping in weird military outfits as though he were a five-star general in the Honduran army."
So in some ways we can see the nostalgic attention paid to a pop singer as an image of our own pining for the old life we had here in America, a life that we can feel slipping away, month by month, and year by year. So today millions and millions will sit enthralled by the coverage, while I chide myself inwardly for taking the time to even write this post about the subject. I hate to be a killjoy, but the fate of Michael Jackson is just not important, not news, and not something a nation should mourn in this way. I suppose we have to wait ten years for the postage stamp now... Sigh.
Just my humble opinion.
