Enough with the freak already

Can we stop talking about Michael Jackson already? I've tried to be tolerant. I've tried to be forgiving. When I was a kid the man was a great musician and performer. But when was the last time he was anything but a weirdo?¹ The last album of any note came out when I was in high school.²

The first time I remember hearing his name was in gym class back in grade school. A couple of kids drug me into their debate about whether Michael Jackson or Culture Club was better. In retrospect it seems funny that there was even a debate.

Getting back to my original point, I don't care what drugs Jackson was into, who his doctor was, where CPR was performed, who was called first, or how Jon Benet Ramsey was involved. I am mildly curious why Al Sharpton thinks he's someone who should be eulogizing Mike but I don't want to hear the speech. I have less than no desire to attend the funeral let alone watch it on TV. I certainly don't want to watch news stories about people who won tickets to his funeral (or whatever the tickets were for).

Just a week before the man was a pariah. He was that freak who sleeps in an oxygen tent, whose skin pigment has turned against him, who sleeps with little boys and dangles his own kids off of balconies. His death has not changed any of that.

Now, you can call me a hypocrite if you like. I've mourned for famous people in my life. I felt the loss of Douglas Adams and Jim Henson. I got choked up writing about Arthur C Clarke. And I am sorry that Michael Jackson died. Just, please, stop with the non-stop coverage. Let us just sit at home with an old copy of "Bad" and a 20 year old tape player and remember him without all the crap.

¹answer: when he released Invincible in 2001. Yeah, not exactly a big winner was it?
²Dangerous (1991)