Farewell, Michael Jackson

The King of Pop is dead. As many mourn the loss of the indescribably "quirky" public figure while celebrating his musical talent and influence, I thought I could throw in my fond memories of him. It is the least I could do for him.

According to my mother, I really loved "Beat It." I also loved Weird Al Yankovic's "Eat It" and was too young to know the difference. I had no idea what he was singing since I was only a toddler when I first heard these songs, but I must have really loved the rhythm. By the time I hit middle school and developed my hearing, vocabulary, and decision making, I grew to appreciate his music even more. "Smooth Criminal" remains as one of my favorite music videos.

In recent years his controversy overshadowed his singing as I debated whether he was male, female, white, black, or alien based on whatever photograph the news felt like showing. But after his death it all became moot as many held gatherings across the country to simply remember his music. With his unique combination of rhythm, lyrics, and vocal arrangements, Michael had the raw talent that recording technology and marketing campaigns attempt to replicate on today's cookie cutter pop stars.

Michael Jackson not only influenced many musicians, he influenced a couple aspects of my life. While debating over what to name my little brother several years ago, I pushed for a celebrity with the initials of MJ and I did not mean the basketball player. As a child, I stumbled upon a marketing gimmick where Michael Jackson was the spokesperson of a certain carbonated beverage. Details of my interaction with him are sketchy as blogging, digital cameras, and YouTube were not even ideas during this more innocent time of my life. But I can confirm that after that incident, I began drinking a lot more Pepsi than Coke.

At 10AM on the 25th of June, 2009 I posted on Twitter that after Farrah Fawcett died of cancer and with Ed McMahon dead earlier in the week, I wondered who would be the third in that popular "Death comes in threes" cliché. By the afternoon, I received replies that Michael Jackson was in the hospital dying. It was a flurry of activity where I was during the afternoon Michael Jackson died. Even with the ability to report any inane activity thanks to Twitter, Facebook, blogging, and the Internet in general, my colleagues and I spent an hour debating whether Michael Jackson was dead or alive. Yahoo stated that he was hospitalized. TMZ stated he died, but my colleagues wanted cold hard confirmation from an actual news source. In haste, Wikipedia had a typo stating that Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2008. Once CNN, NBC, and CBS reported that the King of Pop died, we all wondered how to react. A piece of our childhood was now gone. A musical great died before he could stage his comeback tour. History seemed to repeat itself as the King of Rock and Roll died under similar circumstances. We had a moment of surreal science in mourning.

I close with my hastily assembled thoughts originally posted on my Facebook covering the Five Stages of Grief for Michael Jackson.

Denial: In the largest publicity stunt ever, Michael Jackson rises from the grave in his Thriller outfit with some backup zombie dancers, they do the dance, and he tells everyone to attend his comeback tour. It could happen. I mean, it's Michael Jackson.

Anger: Damn it!! Now I'll never get to sue Michael Jackson for getting me addicted to Pepsi.

Bargaining: Dear Grim Reaper, if you bring Michael Jackson back, I'll bring you the Jonas Brothers in exchange. I'll even throw in the cast of "Twilight" for free.

Depression: I'm sad that Michael Jackson died. Now which alleged pedophile celebrity who went from poor black boy to rich white woman can I make jokes about?

Acceptance: Life is just God's way of telling you, "You're not alive any more."

I could say it is too soon to make jokes over the death of Michael Jackson. But since most of us made jokes about him while he was alive, it just seems to help cope with the loss of the King of Pop as he takes his final Moonwalk.