Is everyone watching the MJ Farewell?

[Apollo]

The family as a whole are vampires! Most had no personal contact with MJ, they are only interested in how they can make money off of his name.

How does that make them vampires? Only the mother, the kids, and charities got his estate, not them.

 

[Apollo]

When she dies who gets the money?

Just wait and see how the boys will use his name/death and try to resurrect their careers. His bro's have alway been pissed at MJ because he didnt want to tour with them.

I would hope it goes to the children. Hell, it might if she does die. But the children still got 40% of his estate, so as long as they are taken care of, fuck the others.

 

[willsboy84]

probably gonna catch some heat for this, but i can't help but be turned off by the hypocrisy of the whole thing. whether they want to admit it or not, alot of the people who are so "broken up" over his death, treated him as a joke for the last several years.

 

[godson112]

What his daughter said made me burst into tears.
And what Brooke Shields said. They both really moved me. It was a really sad 2 hours, but hopefully I'm now I've grieved properly I can stop thinking about it and move on.
But there'll always be a place on my iPod for his music.

 

[jaysizzles]

I watched it...thought it was tasteful and appropriate. It was a nice tribute to MJ....not a circus or whoring of has-been celebs as far as I saw...although it had all the potential to be one. Thankfully not.

I'm not really a fan of MJ and have never bought any of his music...but can't deny that I've enjoyed his music over the span of my life. I wouldn't have cared if he had a private service...but since they televised it, I figured I'd watch to see what went down...mostly out of curiosity (not morbid curiosity!)

Brooke's eulogy was really touching and interesting...spoke of her younger days when they dated...or in her words...had a friendship. After that...I thought it was odd that Martin Bashir spoke on ABC about how he didn't think Brooke and MJ were that close and that they haven't had any contact in several years. Just seemed a bit catty of him to trivialize her relationship with MJ.

Stevie was also one of my favorite parts when he sang one of my favorite songs ...George Michael's "They Won't Go When I Go". Very touching.

I tuned out Al Sharpton, the ML King kids and the Senator lady...Zzzzzzzzzz

 

[Apollo]

I watched it...thought it was tasteful and appropriate. It was a nice tribute to MJ....not a circus or whoring of has-been celebs as far as I saw...although it had all the potential to be one. Thankfully not.

I'm not really a fan of MJ and have never bought any of his music...but can't deny that I've enjoyed his music over the span of my life. I wouldn't have cared if he had a private service...but since they televised it, I figured I'd watch to see what went down...mostly out of curiosity (not morbid curiosity!)

Brooke's eulogy was really touching and interesting...spoke of her younger days when they dated...or in her words...had a friendship. After that...I thought it was odd that Martin Bashir spoke on ABC about how he didn't think Brooke and MJ were that close and that they haven't had any contact in several years. Just seemed a bit catty of him to trivialize her relationship with MJ.

Stevie was also one of my favorite parts when he sang one of my favorite songs ...George Michael's "They Won't Go When I Go". Very touching.

I tuned out Al Sharpton, the ML King kids and the Senator lady...Zzzzzzzzzz

It was highly tasteful. There was no whoring of anything. All of it was just to remember MJ and leave good memories in peoples minds. Even Al Sharpton said something tasteful.

 

[godson112]

The senator lady's speech was good I thought.
I hope it makes a lot of people think that the law does say 'innocent unless proven otherwise'.

We'll never know whether he did it or not, so why should he be villainised?

I can't get my head around why people think he did it to be honest. I really don't think he had it in him.

 

[supernovachap]

I would like to put my two cents in if you please. While I believe that Michael had many issues, some real and others maybe not so much, I do believe that he was an amazing performer. Many people believed that his public service would be very much like one of his live performances: over the top, filled with energy, and larger than life. I admit, I even thought several times that sparks were going to shoot out from his casket and it would begin to levitate at any moment. If it were to happen, it truly would not have surprised me as that was the essence of Michael Jackson; fun, exciting, and filled with unforeseen craziness.

As I watched the service, I began to see just how solemn it truly was. Many believed it would be like a three ringed circus, so many different stunts going on at one time. It occurred to me that this was not the case. It truly was a dedication and celebration to the life of Mr. Michael Jackson. It was said by many reporters that the crowd felt more like a congregation than an audience. Some thought that many spectators were there to only be apart of the extravagance, and for some I'm sure that was a true statement, but I don't believe that was true for most. The service truly was about the life of Michael Jackson, and everyone in attendance knew it and showed respect for one another and Michael.

For those of you that just want everything to be over with, you've heard enough about him and you want everyone to just get over it, I can understand your feelings. However, I feel I must also point out that this truly is only the beginning. While his death was surely a shock and the media coverage following it was excessive, the events that follow this day will be publicized just as much. While the initial shock of his death has mostly passed, we have only turned the page into a new chapter of his legacy. Now comes the time where we will follow, if only briefly, the life of his three children: Michael Joseph Jr., Paris-Michael, and Prince Michael II.

The custody battle will be long and rough no doubt and, therefore, will be in the media. His will shall most likely be contested and, therefore, will be in the media. AEG Live, the company that headed his return tour “This Is It”, will come more into the public eye because it is speculated that they will sell DVDs of Michael's final dress rehearsals for the show and, therefore, they will be in the media. The dividing of his estate, reportedly 40% to Katherine Jackson, 40% to his children, and 20% to charity will be discussed and deliberated and, therefore, will be in the media. The point is, the news coverage is just something we will have to live with for several more weeks, possibly months.

I also would like to mention two other notes about the funeral service:

1) I have never personally been a fan of the Rev. Al Sharpton for various reasons. However, I do believe that he said something very important and truthful during his time speaking: “There wasn't nothing strange about your daddy, but it was strange what your daddy had to deal with!” The statement was obviously directed to his three children, and I believe that while the first part of the statement could and will be contested by many people, there is a very strong level of truth in that latter part of the statement. He was a human just like all of us and had his own personal struggles, however the difference is that he not only had to face the courts, but the personal judgments of each and every person on that planet that knew what he was going through. That is something that very few people could deal with and he handled it well, regardless of the verdicts.

2) I have never been one to cry at funerals, it's just not how I operate. As such, I did not expect to cry when I heard of Michael's passing, and I didn't. To me it was no different than a president or other prominent figure passing. Watching the service I was perfectly fine until about the last 20 minutes. There is no doubt that the performances of “We Are The World” and “Heal The World” were moving, but the it was the last part of the service that really hit home to me. When Paris began to speak of her father, I began to cry. Her words were, “I just want to say ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine. And I just wanted to say I love him so much." It wasn't because of who died, but because of who spoke those words that I began to break down. The raw emotion in her face and voice were haunting. I can't imagine the hurt and pain she is going through right now, not only losing her father, but also the fact that it such a public spectacle. However, I am glad to see that she has such a caring family behind her and that it now might be possible to lead a somewhat normal life now, after everything is said and done.

I will honestly be surprised if many people read this all the way through or at all. I have tried to be objective as possible and if I have fallen short I'm sorry. These are simply my personal thoughts on the matter and they carry very little weight. I have always believed that his music has touched many lives and always will. The details of his life will soon become unimportant and will fade away, but his music will live on for many, many years. Many people will only remember the lows of his life, but I implore you to learn all of the facts before you run his name into the ground. He was an amazing humanitarian, a strong contributer to charities, pioneer in the music industry, and an excellent performer and these are truthful facts that simply cannot be denied.

I leave you with these words from one of his songs:

In Our Darkest Hour
In My Deepest Despair
Will You Still Care?
Will You Be There?
In My Trials
And My Tribulations
Through Our Doubts
And Frustrations
In My Violence
In My Turbulence
Through My Fear
And My Confessions
In My Anguish And My Pain
Through My Joy And My Sorrow
In The Promise Of Another Tomorrow
I'll Never Let You Part
For You're Always In My Heart.

 

[hotb0d]

I would like to put my two cents in if you please. While I believe that Michael had many issues, some real and others maybe not so much, I do believe that he was an amazing performer. Many people believed that his public service would be very much like one of his live performances: over the top, filled with energy, and larger than life. I admit, I even thought several times that sparks were going to shoot out from his casket and it would begin to levitate at any moment. If it were to happen, it truly would not have surprised me as that was the essence of Michael Jackson; fun, exciting, and filled with unforeseen craziness.

As I watched the service, I began to see just how solemn it truly was. Many believed it would be like a three ringed circus, so many different stunts going on at one time. It occurred to me that this was not the case. It truly was a dedication and celebration to the life of Mr. Michael Jackson. It was said by many reporters that the crowd felt more like a congregation than an audience. Some thought that many spectators were there to only be apart of the extravagance, and for some I'm sure that was a true statement, but I don't believe that was true for most. The service truly was about the life of Michael Jackson, and everyone in attendance knew it and showed respect for one another and Michael.

For those of you that just want everything to be over with, you've heard enough about him and you want everyone to just get over it, I can understand your feelings. However, I feel I must also point out that this truly is only the beginning. While his death was surely a shock and the media coverage following it was excessive, the events that follow this day will be publicized just as much. While the initial shock of his death has mostly passed, we have only turned the page into a new chapter of his legacy. Now comes the time where we will follow, if only briefly, the life of his three children: Michael Joseph Jr., Paris-Michael, and Prince Michael II.

The custody battle will be long and rough no doubt and, therefore, will be in the media. His will shall most likely be contested and, therefore, will be in the media. AEG Live, the company that headed his return tour “This Is It”, will come more into the public eye because it is speculated that they will sell DVDs of Michael's final dress rehearsals for the show and, therefore, they will be in the media. The dividing of his estate, reportedly 40% to Katherine Jackson, 40% to his children, and 20% to charity will be discussed and deliberated and, therefore, will be in the media. The point is, the news coverage is just something we will have to live with for several more weeks, possibly months.

I also would like to mention two other notes about the funeral service:

1) I have never personally been a fan of the Rev. Al Sharpton for various reasons. However, I do believe that he said something very important and truthful during his time speaking: “There wasn't nothing strange about your daddy, but it was strange what your daddy had to deal with!” The statement was obviously directed to his three children, and I believe that while the first part of the statement could and will be contested by many people, there is a very strong level of truth in that latter part of the statement. He was a human just like all of us and had his own personal struggles, however the difference is that he not only had to face the courts, but the personal judgments of each and every person on that planet that knew what he was going through. That is something that very few people could deal with and he handled it well, regardless of the verdicts.

2) I have never been one to cry at funerals, it's just not how I operate. As such, I did not expect to cry when I heard of Michael's passing, and I didn't. To me it was no different than a president or other prominent figure passing. Watching the service I was perfectly fine until about the last 20 minutes. There is no doubt that the performances of “We Are The World” and “Heal The World” were moving, but the it was the last part of the service that really hit home to me. When Paris began to speak of her father, I began to cry. Her words were, “I just want to say ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine. And I just wanted to say I love him so much." It wasn't because of who died, but because of who spoke those words that I began to break down. The raw emotion in her face and voice were haunting. I can't imagine the hurt and pain she is going through right now, not only losing her father, but also the fact that it such a public spectacle. However, I am glad to see that she has such a caring family behind her and that it now might be possible to lead a somewhat normal life now, after everything is said and done.

I will honestly be surprised if many people read this all the way through or at all. I have tried to be objective as possible and if I have fallen short I'm sorry. These are simply my personal thoughts on the matter and they carry very little weight. I have always believed that his music has touched many lives and always will. The details of his life will soon become unimportant and will fade away, but his music will live on for many, many years. Many people will only remember the lows of his life, but I implore you to learn all of the facts before you run his name into the ground. He was an amazing humanitarian, a strong contributer to charities, pioneer in the music industry, and an excellent performer and these are truthful facts that simply cannot be denied.

I leave you with these words from one of his songs:

In Our Darkest Hour
In My Deepest Despair
Will You Still Care?
Will You Be There?
In My Trials
And My Tribulations
Through Our Doubts
And Frustrations
In My Violence
In My Turbulence
Through My Fear
And My Confessions
In My Anguish And My Pain
Through My Joy And My Sorrow
In The Promise Of Another Tomorrow
I'll Never Let You Part
For You're Always In My Heart.

That is one fine piece of literature that I've ever read on this forum.

 

[Joshua_me]

Wow, the children of Martin Luther King Jr are speaking.

Let's hear it for speech therapy.


(sorry)


In all honesty, I thought that Stevie Wonder's song was beautiful. He sits down at the piano and the entire 'show' gets ratcheted up a few notches. The man is a genius.

Paris' words were heartbreaking. Those poor kids, they are in for a very rough few years (maybe more) to come...

I'm amazed Janet and LaToya didn't say anything.

 

[NineOfClubs]

Yes, let's hear it for supernovachap!

Extremely well written post, full of understanding and insight rarely seen on JUB.

 

[willsboy84]

Against my better judgement I had to come on and see what the gossip queens here had to say about todays memorial. I will say this, some of you guys give a good arguement for "gay bassing".

I love how people who can do nothing and probably will never do anything with there lives, sit though out their bs opinions about someone. Issues or not, the man did a lot of good for people and is dead. Show some respect. And you wonder why people done respect you.

i have all the respect in the world for him. i just can't help but wonder how sincere some people are in their sorrow.

 

[godson112]

i have all the respect in the world for him. i just can't help but wonder how sincere some people are in their sorrow.

I have a very strange sorrow. I'm only 18 so I don't think people would expect me to be sad about it.
I've always been a fan of his music, when I was little my mum bought Thriller on video and let me watch it and I was AMAZED by it. I thought it was mesmerising and I remember trying to learn the dance sequence he does for ages, but I never could do it

Not many people my age really like his music but I grew up listening to a lot of what my parents listened to. So, while he never stood out in my mind as one of my favourite musicians, I still much preferred the Spice Girls and Britney Spears (I am so gay lol). And when all my friends throughout school used to tell so called 'jokes', laughing about his plastic surgery and in secondary school when they all told the child molesting jokes, I was always the one, and usually the ONLY one who didn't laugh and tried to defend him.

I don't really know what I'm trying to get at, this is just a sort of stream of conciousness. But ultimately, I really am sad he's gone, I've always enjoyed his music, and I just regret that it wasn't until he died that I began to actually love his music and really appreciate it. But I'm happy that I'm lucky enough to know his music and whereas all these people think of him and think of negative things, I have positive things to think about regarding him and I believe he was a good man.

/randomjibberish

 

[willsboy84]

You wanna explain how that is?



Oh. I see. So the only way i get to express my opinion is if i'm just as famous as MJ?

Bullshit.

I didn't watch the tribute(of my own choosing - it was on all over the house, and on the radio... i caught Stevie Wonder, and that was nice, but then i caught Kobe Bryant and i turned up my headphones full blast and sighed) because i had to work, and if i didn't, i wouldn't watch it because it's halfway hypocritical to hear all these people - musicians not included, since a lot of them really have and do look up to Micheal for his talent, not his tabloids - claim to care about a man that, despite all the good he's done(and in private too - of that, i can completely applaud him for, unlike other celebs), has allegedly commited heinous acts, and been the fodder for comedy for years. All of a sudden he dies, and all these halfway fans from before the Pepsi commercial dive in and start turning on the waterworks, collecting magazines, telling stories about yesteryear, and trying to put on this fake air as if they were still all for the man. Where were these people when Invincible came out? Where were they when he fled the country and had to give up Neverland? Where was the outpouring of respect and love then? No, the peons wait til the man dies to be "proud" of Micheal Jackson, and those that chide the movement are haters, and they deserve to be bashed, and hurt, and they'll amount to nothing so why listen to them... fucking BULLSHIT.

I don't support the fakeness of the media, who have almost always torn down Micheal - from Lisa Marie Presley on until the Short interview, but they are mostly singing his praises(it annoys me to death that Al Sharpton tried to turn that into a race issue, AGAIN, but it is Al, and that's to be expected). And i won't sit here and be made a bad guy because some rogue fan - or half fan, or renewed fan, or fan of convenience - decides i'm not allowed to have another opinion of this funeral/spectacle.

Some people need to get their heads out of the ass of the collective sheep and take a whiff of the fresh air.

see? i can ALWAYS count on you to really press home the point i'm trying to make.

it's not about disrepecting Michael--how could you possibly NOT respect the impact he's made in music, but hypocrisy of all the media coverage is just disgusting.

 

[RyanJ]

That'd be cool^

I Walk downstairs and my mom and her friend are crying.

I guess i'm too young to really.. care doesn't seem like the right word..

Although It is sweet and I understand all that they're doing for him
I didn't know he was as big as he was.

He's still major overseas, but in America, everyone hated him until he passed on and they realized how great his music was again...it's sad really

 

[spooger]

I would like to put my two cents in if you please. *clip -- to save bandwidth although it deserves repeating*

That is one fine piece of literature that I've ever read on this forum.

supernovachap - a hearty WELCOME to JUB, and a heartfelt thank you for your post

your thoughts impressed me .... enough that i read your other few posts here on JUB .... only a half dozen since you're a newbie ....

i will say that for an 18 year old man, you are possessed of wisdom and a good manner with your words ... kudos to you sir, for your insightful thoughts in this thread...

i look forward to reading a lot more from you .... welcome again, and i hope you have as much fun here as i do...

**************************************

now my few thoughts about the memorial service :

i personally thought there would be much ugliness at the staples center when thousands more people showed up than would be allowed in ... didn't happen ... my bad ... prejudicial assumption perhaps about the genuine nature of peoples' mourning ...

i thought the media would degenerate into a disgusting feeding frenzy and make a meaningless spectacle of what memorializing might truly occur ... didn't happen ... although i didn't see much of the day, what i did see was tastefully presented ...

i am a bit disappointed that Al Sharpton was brought into the spectacle ... i have no respect for him as i perceive him to be a leech upon the black community interested in self aggrandizement and a selfish political hack .... but today, unlike earlier in this affair, he left out of his speech how important he perceives himself to be ..... i really had to swallow hard to listen to him and keep that knot from forming in my gut..

i am conflicted about the city having to foot the bill for security and support for this function when the state and city are near bankrupt .... was a grand spectacle necessary, or could / would a private service alone have been sufficient ?

i have never personally cared for Michael Jackson or his music .... does nothing for me ... but i recognize his talent and that a lot of the world regards him differently than i do ... and that his fans will miss him ....

it is unfortunate that in spite of his mega$$$ - or perhaps because of it -- his life was so conflicted .... RIP

 

[Kester]

They just started showing a replay of the farewell on TV in my part of the world.

I got it playing in the background. Honestly I'll be glad when I can turn on the TV and not hear something about him.

 

[keithbj]

I find this all very funny personally. The news media is covering MJ left, right, and center non-stop since his death. Which leads me to this. The west makes fun of media in the DPRK and PRC when Kim Il Sung and Mao died. People in the west were saying look at how crazy these people are over the death of the founder or leader of the country.
This makes me ask: Wait are you not doing the same for MJ? Did you not do the same for Elvis? And what are they POP singers? Pop singers! You have got to be kidding. Pop singers.

 

[CGHJ]

I keep thinking Mary Jane from Spider Man died. Now that's a memorial service...I also wouldn't watch.

 

[Jersey Domino]

No. Gotta work in 15. MMA in on now.

Me likey droll over MMA fighters. Tho, Joe Pearson is on my screen now, and he's not... so hot... well, until he took off his shirt.

'cuze me.

Where are/were you watching MMA?