The Right, The Wrong & The Wretched: A Week In Reflection

The King Is Dead

Honoring the biggest superstar of the last 30 years is no small task, but when news of Michael Jackson’s untimely death broke last Thursday, it seemed that every network and major media outlet in the entire world scrapped their standard programming to pay tribute to the King of Pop. It was a refreshing confirmation of humanity to see that something, anything is still sacred in capitalism’s utopia, where ballparks and stadiums are no longer named after people, but highest-bidding corporations.

This year’s BET Awards ceremony was entirely reformatted at almost literally the last minute, when planners decided to turn the event into a nearly four-hour Jackson tribute. Host Jamie Foxx moonwalked (or tried to, anyway), New Edition got their irrelevant asses back together for a Jackson 5 medley and even Janet stopped by to express her gratitude for honoring her dead brother. Nobody’s going to remember who won a BET award 20 years from now, but our grandchildren will know Michael Jackson’s music, and that’s what Sunday’s show was about. They hit all the right notes.

All the major networks aired specials. The radio instantly adopted an “all-Michael, all the time” format. MTV actually played music videos for the first time in anyone’s memory as well, boldly depriving millions of vapid tweens of their daily dose of “Teen Cribs” and “Paris Hilton’s New BFF” as the channel ran through a marathon of Michael Jackson videos from throughout his mind-blowingly groundbreaking career.

It’s a beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime experience to walk into a sushi place that’s packed and blaring Man In The Mirror, catch a snippet of Bad as you walk by the dry cleaners moments later, catch the full six minutes and change of  Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough at the ice-cream store and still hear P.Y.T. blasting from cars as you’re sitting at the reds on your way home. It was like living a movie, with the soundtrack entirely composed by the greatest entertainer in the history of pop music.

The Ticks & Leeches Arrive

We knew that some level of post-memorial feeding frenzy was bound to happen, given that the man lived such an extraordinarily bizarre and secretive life, but it’s still a shock to the system to see reputable news organizations like CNN and MSNBC rubbing up alongside TMZ and the plankton-legions of Perez disciples at the carrion feast, picking at Jackson’s proverbial bones while climbing over each other to break super-exclusive top-secret information on the dead icon that none of us ever needed to hear. His kids aren’t his! His face was almost entirely made of wax! All he ever ate was baby panda hearts! At the moment it’s impossible to tell genuine truth from outrageous bullshit – after all, we’re talking about a guy who named his kid Blanket, owned a chimp named Bubbles and built an amusement park around his house.

Given his upbringing and the fact that he spent his entire life in the limelight, it’s no surprise that the guy was a grade-A weirdo, but his body was barely cold before the vultures set out to expose all the dirty secrets. Nothing at all is sacred anymore, boys and girls. Also, keep in mind – two other major celebrities died in the same week (Fawcett and McMahon), but their deaths were mere coverage footnotes in the five-alarm frenzy of circus vultures and crocodile tears.

The Fallout And Final Goodbye

Hotels are sold out for dozens of miles in every direction in the area where Jackson’s Neverland Ranch is located in the hills of Santa Barbara, CA. Revelers are already flocking in a Graceland-esque pilgrimage to pay their final respects to – and maybe catch a final glimpse of – the legendary musician, despite a growing number reports that city officials will not permit a memorial at Neverland on Friday, contrary to previous reports. In fact, the Jackson family issued a statement this morning saying that while a memorial service is in the works, it won’t be held at Neverland. It’s now reportedly being planned at the Staples Center in Los Angeles – tickets will be sold for $25. 

Granted, Jackson was a magnet for controversy, especially later in life when he was hit with an assortment of child abuse claims in the ’90s and early 00’s. According to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, Jackson’s death debt is said to exceed $500 million, but his net worth has likely skyrocketed in the wake of his passing, given that his musical catalogue has blasted back into raging popularity on the charts.

However, several news sources are claiming that the star has willed his stake in the Beatles catalogue, which some estimate to be worth in excess of $1 billion, to original Beatle Paul McCartney. London’s Mirror is reporting that the two former friends, who had collaborated on the hit singles “Say Say Say” and “The Girl Is Mine,” famously fell out after Jackson won a bidding war with McCartney and Yoko Ono over who would own the rights to (and subsequently reap the massive royalties of) the Beatles catalogue. According to the Mirror, “Michael told his lawyers he was sad he no longer talks to Sir Paul and said he wanted to make things right.”

As generous and heart-warming as that story is, Southern California concert promoter AEG is likely foaming at the mouth at the news, and with good reason. The company stands to lose roughly $85 million in ticket refunds on Jackson’s planned 50-concert residency at London’s 02 arena. The concert series, ominously titled the “This Is It!” tour, has obviously been cancelled, and talks of a possible series of tribute concerts to be held in their place have thus far produced nothing promising.