His death was a real shocker, no doubt. Nobody saw it coming. I mean yeah, the man had lotsa surgery done, he was almost obsessed with it. He was also what some would describe "disfigured", point of no return. His COD is undetermined as yet. But speculations rife that his cocktail of painkillers ala morphine overdose killed him. WHo knows. And we may never know, cause for some reason / conspiracy, the relevant people / family would want to keep it under wraps. For good reason too, and can't blame them for it, since they want the world to remember the best of the King of Pop. Truly, I don't think anyone could ever replace the esteemed place he holds in their hearts and minds. Just like Elvis Presley, or Marilyn Monroe.
I'm no big fan of MJ. He wasn't really "my era", though, he doesn't need to be in anybody's era, for people to know that big name. I know he has lotsa hits, chart-toppers, famous songs, etc. Some I like, some I don't. But I must admit his mtvs are quite a thriller to watch =) But I do remember the time when I was in Pri 6, I took my eldest sis' MJ CD and listened. I remember disliking his trademark "ugh" noise that he likes to pepper his songs with. Yes I call it "noise" and I still don't like it. But he really was quite a dancer, never mind the famous crotch-grabbing.
A celebrity's life thrives, and depends even, on publicity. For the best or worse of it. For every one person who likes him/her, you can count on the next man on the street to dislike him. Or at least find the man neutral. Me, like I said, am no avid fan. His songs are listenable. Still, I don't like deaths. Yeah ok, who likes. Except maybe for those the likes of Bernie Madoff.
I remember the Fri morning, when the wires started streaming in furiously, first of his "hospitalisation". THen how "he wasn't breathing". But still, at that point I was like, "exaggeration" (some wires tend to do that). I headed for a loo break, but while I was in there, I thought to myself "oh dear..he'd better not die". When I return to my desk and check out the latest wires, it says "MJ dead"...by then, our newsroom (the few of us there) was abuzz. I hated big/breaking news like these happening on my watch. Yes it makes for good tv, but the things / process that go behind putting those reports and stuff out on air is unimaginable. This time, I was a little worried. I kept thinking "don't die on us". These were still unconfirmed reports of his death streaming in. My dy ed hesitated to put up the "latest bar" because after all, it was based on one celebrity (gossip) website's scoop. On hindsight, their scoop must hv paid off big time now. Anyways...when another website "announced" his death, we went ahead and starting putting his "death" stories, although attributing it to "unconfirmed" reports. Till reports abt the coronor confirming at abt 7 or 8 our time. But in between the first report till then, there were live pix fed through, of fans gathering outside the hospital, and..an earlier shot of a covered body being wheeled into the ambulance. That then, was the reality check. So surreal.
True, there are genuine people and fans who truly cared abt MJ, love his music and the stuff he puts out. But let's not forget his life (since becoming a celebrity), was like a circus for the media. THey picked up the bad, publicised on them, called him Jacko the Wacko, even when news of his plans to hold a series of concerts were reported with a tinge of scepticism / ridicule. Not excitement, mind you. I don't know, that was at least how I had perceived. He was really a media victim. THen when he just died like that, they seemed to all sing the same tune of how nice, how great the man was, etc. Kinda disgusted me. I feel sad for the man. I mean, ok, he may seem guilty of paedophilic tendencies...but the media are a hypocritical bunch, really. They aren't angels themselves. But can't really blame them..after all, who makes up the media? OUr fellow humans. They are always full of talk about objective reporting, fact-reporting. But half the time, they infused their "objective reporting" with their subtle opinions, or through the way they craft their stories, designed to sway opinons.
June is just a bad month for celebrities. 3 have died. Coincidence? Death is no coincidence. But i guess the timing is. Try not to read too much into it. But I won't be surprised couple of days/weeks down, some soothsayer or fengshuit master is gonna comment about hacing "predicted" his/their deaths..or come up with some saying/calculations/whatever rubbish about their deaths being linked to some bigger forces. Well yeah, guess what? The only force is simply them being called home to be with the Lord...stomach that.
On a side note, I've always love this saying -- people like to ask, "Why does God like to take people away from their loved ones?" The reply is simply "God loves them enough to want to bring them close to Him".
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