Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Mike

Everything that BET did wrong... AEG did right.
While reading posts on sites like Stormfront, many comments were made concerning how tacky anything having to do with the Jackson family would turn out.
Red-Neck please... This was the service you wish you could have.
Maybe they expected something as "classy" as the Elvis Presley ceremony.

I had to listen to racist cousins asking, "Why are all those white people there?".
Really?
Mike didn't care about race. His kids are probably white.
John Meyer and Brooke Shields were there because they belonged.
They weren't the tokens as was Jeremy Piven at the BET awards.

Even the Reverend Al delivered.
Well... he more than delivered - he was the ish.
During the BET awards - Al seemed to lack any sense of rhythm.
But after dancing with Spike earlier in the week, and making possibly the most quoted eulogy of the entire ceremony ("There is nothing strange about your daddy...") -
I'm no fan of Al - But Al was the shit.

I've been going to funerals since I was one.
My father died when I was that age.
When I was five - a playmate who lived next door died from choking on a balloon with which he was playing.
The next year - my father's brother died from complications after an auto accident when the white hospitals refused service to him based on his race.
Throughout childhood and adolescence - funerals became something of the norm.
I've been in more funerals than I've been in weddings. And I've been in a lot of weddings.
But the thing that always gets me is when the young children of the deceased react to their parent's passing. Maybe I feel as though I can relate.

Maybe that's when a funeral for a guy I never met suddenly became personal.
Whether the three were Mike's kid's genetically or not - Mike was their father.
And being the only father they've ever known - Paris, Prince and Blanket will miss out on the relationship that is so important in anyone's life.

Did Mike like little boys a little too much? I don't know.
Did Mike have a little bit too much work done to change his appearance? Maybe, but I don't care.
But will Mike be missed?
Definitely, yes.

4 comments:

  1. "Maybe they expected something as 'classy' as the Elvis Presley ceremony."

    Good one! Been checking out some conservative sites. They seem to be all indignant about the attention given MJ. Furthermore, they have began to resort to namecalling--perv, freak, so on. But they seem to have forgotten their little faux pas' as of late.

    Keep telling the truth and knocking them down, brother!

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  2. As I said before, I was in more of shock than sadness at Michael's passing. That was until I saw his little girl on the stage at the Staples Center, exclaiming how much she loves and misses him. That coming on the heels of Marlon Jackson's heartfelt goodbye to his little brother (telling MJ to give his twin a hug for him), was enough to open the flood gates of emotion built up these past two weeks.

    I don't care who you are, seeing display of raw emotion like that coming from a child, is like a punch to the gut. It was at that moment that a wave of sadness (that was probably always there) came over me and the awful finality of Michael Jackson’s death became real to me.

    I was transported back in time when a younger Noface could be found trying moonwalk like the man himself. This man’s music was a major selection in the soundtrack of my life (as is true for millions of other people around the world). He may be gone but the legacy that he has left behind musically makes him immortal in this world (what ever his status is in the next one).

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  3. "Maybe they expected something as 'classy' as the Elvis Presley ceremony."

    I love this one too! Excellent post! I remember just crying when Paris spoke about her father. Those like Billo and others should be a shamed of themselves if they saw her.

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  4. I have talked my fair share of trash about MJ, little boys, surgery, race of his kids, all kinds of stuff. But you are right.
    However he got those kids, no matter how strange he really was... he was hugely talented, and unlike the one he was born with... He was a father, and by all accounts, a good one.

    That is most important in my book.

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