nedhepburn:

I guess the weird thing about someone major dying is that people have to buck the fuck up and understand death very, very quickly. I won’t go into my own personal shit over the last 2 months, just allude to it, it’s just cathartic – somewhat – to see the reactions of others to a situation of this magnitude.

MJ was hardly at least in his waning years much more than tabloid fodder and let’s be honest somewhat of a punchline. But it goes a long way to see the outpouring of emotion towards the guy – faults and all – for what he did to the Americana that is all around us.

Do you think when Willie Nelson passes we will have the same outcry? Probably not. Or what about Little Richard? Again: not as much, I hate to say. When someone dies this suddenly it’s hard to look at them in any other light than the one that was self created and publicity filtered.

At the end of the very long day I suppose that that should be what is
remembered most about Michael. He was literally and figurativley out of this world, and I challenge others to have the same Elvis-esque quality that he did. However, he was just a guy at the end of it. The persona was carefully created over the last 30 years by a small army of people I’m sure we will never actually see. But what a guy.

Maybe the dude molested kids. That just ain’t cool. And I’m sure better worded cases against the guy will come out over the next few days. At least in the amber if this moment we can appreciate the good about him, though.

I think this moment is important, because soon the vultures will descend and have their way. But speaking personally I can fucking remember very clearly how much I idolized MJ at like 4 or 5 years old. Dude was badass. Let’s at least for now remember him that way, because a very big part of our culture died today, and for what it’s worth, we should remember him that way – the good times – because fuck it – between Ben, the Moonwalk, and Black or White, dude was unstoppable.