Repository of Roving Recollections: June 2009

This has been a crazy week.

At the beginning of the week we got the news that American celebrity Ed McMahon had passed away. It wasn't a big shock, as much as it was just sad to know that someone I've watched on television since childhood was now gone. I didn't really linger on it, but I definitely felt very sad when I read the headline and also feel for his family.

Then on Thursday morning while watching "The View", Barbara Walters passed along the information that Farrah Fawcett was in her final hours of life. She was at the end of her long battle with cancer and had only hours of life left. By the time I made it to the hair salon around 1pm, I was told that she had passed on. Even though we all had months to prepare for this, it was still hard to hear that she was gone. She wasn't a favorite celebrity of mine or anything, but again, she was someone I had seen on television a lot growing up, and her name was synonymous with beauty in most circles.

Then hours later, the shocker of them all. The news that NO ONE was ready to hear or accept. You know how there are events we've all lived through as a nation or world in which we will always remember where we were, what we were doing, and how we got the news about it? Well when CNN started posting news coverage that King of Pop Michael Jackson had passed away, I was too outdone for words. Nothing about it makes sense. He was only 50 years old! He's been rehearsing for a summer tour in the UK due to begin a month from now! We've just had two other beloved US celebrities pass away that many were in the middle of mourning...the greatest international celebrity of our generation couldn't possibly be gone mere hours later!!

I immediately called my sister. CNN was still not actually confirming the story at the time, and Chris was in the shower. I needed to talk with someone about this!! My sister told me that she had been watching the news for over an hour, and NO, it was not a joke. I immediately felt the tears in my eyes. I wasn't able to talk for a few seconds, and my sister knowingly said "I know, I've been crying too".

You see, my sister and I LOVED Michael Jackson as kids. She was 5 and I was 8 when Jackson's "Billie Jean" begin heavy on-air rotation. It was the first video I had seen on television with a black music artist, as far as I can remember. The only music video television available at the time was MTV, and they only played "Rock" music, which basically meant only white music. Most of the videos they played were actually pop songs by white artists. Their arms were twisted, threats were made by record companies to pull their videos if MTV didn't play Michael Jackson's video being played on their network, and MTV finally relented. The result was a hunger for more Michael Jackson!!

We all know that "Beat It" was next, only to be followed by the highest grossing song of ALL time..."Thriller". To this day it is the most played video ever on any music video network. It spent a whopping 37 weeks at #1 on the charts! Lots of irony there, considering MTV didn't even want to air any of MJ's music at all. Ha!

I should also mention that my mother, who is rarely touched by ANYTHING at all, actually shed tears as well. For her it was two-fold. As a teenager, she used to watch The Jackson 5 on American Bandstand with Dick Clark and had all of their albums. She was about as obsessed with Jackson 5 as my sister and I were with MJ himself a decade later. She also remembers how mine and my sisters eyes would light up whenever we'd hear the intro to "Billie Jean" coming on. We'd tear down the stairs to the family room where the big tv was and start screaming and dancing. My mom didn't believe in posters on the walls, but she made an exception for Michael Jackson. His "Thriller" album was the first album we ever had. Actually, it was only album we had for many years to come...until he released "Bad" a year or two later. We had the MJ pins and other such paraphernalia that represented our mini obsession with the pop star. She was saddened to see that a big mark of the era of our childhood was now gone.

Well, I think 3 - 4 days is enough time for me to mourn MJ. I spent between 48 and 72 hours watching all of his videos, listening to all of his songs, and my brain is darn near numb now. Time to move on.

Labels: death, Michael Jackson