Where Musical Stuff Speaks Loudly
Posts tagged Michael Jackson
A Birthday Burial
Aug 18th
Next Friday would have been the late, great Michael Jackson’s 51st birthday, and as a present, undertakers at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California, where many celebrities return to dust, expect to inter him there, at the Holly Terrace at the Great Mausoleum, according to Sunshine, Sachs & Associates. The interment would take place at 10 AM PT and will be attended by only his family (including siblings Jermaine and Janet) and close friends. I’m cool with the location where MJ would be laid to rest, because Neverland is too much of a controversy as a final resting place. The Jacksons “once again wishes to express its gratitude to Michael’s fans around the world for their support during these difficult times,” according to a statement. I bet one of his millions of fans is my mother, who had attended a concert in her native Philippines in the 70’s, thus getting to know him.
On the other side of the Atlantic, in Brooklyn, Spike Lee plans to hold a huge celebration of his life in town to coincide with this fitting burial.
I will be in Fort Lauderdale for a vacation at the day of the burial, so I wish him happy birthday and pray for his happy birthday repose.
Update: Due to the LAUSD’s back to school date on 8/31, the burial is postponed until 9/3, TMZ reported.
That One Day in Our Lives
Jul 8th
Michael Jackson’s song, “One Day in Your Life,” is a ballad about a loss of a friend, and the lyrics say that although he or she is gone, he or she will be in people’s hearts and memories. People remember the person as more of a good friend, more like a lifelong companion, only that he or she is distant from them. This was sung back in 1975, during the time when he touched Philippine soil and when my mother personally saw him in a concert.
On July 7, 2009, this song was more relevant than ever – fans of all walks of life, even those who are not too interested in the King of Pop as I am, watched his funeral from the comfort of their homes online or TV, in stadiums, movie theaters, bars, pubs, on Times Square, or (if they were lucky to have a gold wristband and ticket) in the solemn aura of Staples Center in Los Angeles. The more I listened to the song, shortly after the funeral, the more relevant the lyrics. I knew that very instant that although he has left us, he will be in our hearts. God bless Michael.
To Me, Michael Jackson’s Funeral Was More than A Broacasted and Cherished Homecoming
Jul 7th
Today, I finally got all the initial responses to all the term’s threaded discussions squared away (I will be obtaining relevant materials tomorrow.), and I did so because I wanted to allot time to watch the funeral at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, of a pop icon who sang my favorite song of his (penned by Don Black), “Ben.”
That man in the casket, of course, was the world-renowned Michael Jackson.
Personally, I’m not much of a fan, but I deeply appreciate his good acts as a humanitarian and of course, his ballads. My mother, however, was an avid listener of Jackson during the “Jackson 5″ era as a teen growing up in her native Philippines. She attended a concert herself, when Jackson was sixteen or seventeen. Alongside the aforementioned “Ben,” his song “One Day in Your Life” is just as touching, and yet, it’s so relevant to this day – the funeral of a revered, worldwide pop icon.
I watched the live coverage via CNN online and on the living room television with my newly-repaired DirecTV service. There were several high points in the funeral, from his brother Jermaine Jackson’s touching rendition of “Smile,” a Charlie Chaplin hit (Brooke Shields remarked that it was Jackson’s favorite song.) to the gathering of celebrity mourners in a provocative medley of “We Are the World” and “Heal the World” But the moment I deem as prominently emotional was 11-year-old Jackson’s daughter Paris’s terse yet tearful eulogy for “Daddy,” as her aunt Janet comforts her. Clearly, the reason why the few seconds of the preteen pouring out her grief moved me the most is because I personally had lost a father myself over 6 years ago on Easter Monday. As a Facebook user myself, I contacted many of my friends and joined in the discussion about the televised event as I watched it with my own two eyes from my PC in my Brandon area (FL) home.
I’m not a Jackson biggie, but I want to thank him for the international entertainment. May St. Cecelia now pray for his happy repose.
Surely – Jackson Was our “Ben”
Jul 5th
I have to admit that I’m not really a Michael Jackson fanatic, but if I can name a favorite song performed by him, it would not be his famous “Thriller” or his “Billie Jean,” but my favorite Jackson song has to be the titular theme song of the 1972 horror film Ben. It is a song about friendship, a young boy’s ode to a killer rat to whom he befriended, and the song has its place in the family iPod At the end of the movie (pardon me for the spoilers) Ben survives the police’s seizure and killing of the rat colonies, but the story would have been different if the pet rat were either killed or sent to the labs.
A lot of fans have been over or have befriended Jackson, who died on June 25 this year. About 1.6 million fans have raffled for tickets to his funeral, slated to be after tomorrow, and the 11, 000 tickets will be handed out to the lucky ones, while those left behind can watch the memorial services on the big screens outside Staples Center. I for one cannot come to Los Angeles, given that I’m in college and I have visitors in my house, but I did something to honor the pop king – I wrote an article on the former Disney Parks attraction, Captain EO, in which I did not see since I was too young to have experienced it on my very first trip to Walt Disney World. On the day of his funeral, I would get my college work done early so I can have the liberty to watch the service from the PC, since my satellite television service is down and cannot be repaired until Thursday.
Jackson fans will always have a friend – like Ben – even when he had died.
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