the king is dead?

how can some one who never grew up, die at 50? perhaps none of us will ever know exactly what was going on with this man's life. we do know that celebrity kills. that we have seen time and time again. and yet, this one was a little more off than the rest. yes, there was the child molestation angle, but to me, that was the product of a larger question, as perhaps, it always is. we will never know exactly what jackson did with these children, but we do know that he was the eternal child. the man was not allowed to mature. hounded by celebrity culture and a brutal media, he was also enriched out of all proportion to his talent. in a land of celebrities, he was perhaps the ultimate celebrity this country has ever produced. all knocks aside, he was quite the performer, although his voice was too high for me, and i could have done without the whole grabbing the balls thing. his era was the pop era, when singers were not backed by live bands. there was no interaction, no energy flowing from a singer to his group, and back again. but, he was exciting. he thrilled millions, so obviously, there was something there.

how could a man who never grew up die? i feel weird about this. i have a vague sense that an injustice was done, but intellectually, it's hard to pontificate on how this is so. still, why can't we leave people alone? why do we drive our heroes mad? isn't a man entitled to take a walk without a thousand cameras flashing?

and yet, as tragedies go, it doesn't compare to the drone that just destroyed 60 people in pakistan, many of them attending a funeral when the bomb fell. there were no late specials about this, no news breaks, no americans standing outside of hospitals and newsrooms waiting for word on survivors. people didn't gather on facebook to share youtube postings on the dozens of dead. we have a funny sense of tragedy here in the states.

so yeah, michael is gone. i'm not happy about it. a 50 year old man is gone. and worst of all, he never had a chance to grow. sinatra once said of elvis that he never really grew as an artist. what can we say of michael jackson? in our pop age, artists peak in their early 20's, as jackson did. where are the 44 year old's reminding us to take it "nice and easy?" no, they don't last like that anymore, but why is that so?

this death is bothering me. it's sickening. i didn't love michael jackson, but i didn't hate him either. and now, he's gone. it's not a total shock. occasionally, he would appear in public in a wheelchair. other rumors had him having skin cancer. we know that he was loaded up on meds. it seemed to take great effort from him to speak. but, dead at 50?

michael jackson 1958-2009