Annie are you OK?

I can't say that I was ever really a fan of the music, I didn't own "Thriller" or "Off the wall" and don't. In fact, I don't own anything later than the Jackson 5 Christmas album. That was Louren's doing, but I admit that its a good album. I also admit that in general, he was a very talented dancer and had a good sense of pop hooks. And over the years, he did manage to turn out a decent song or two. For example, I was always partial to "Scream" the collaboration that he did with his sister, Janet.

Despite the occasional good song, his fame and popularity will always be something of a puzzle to me. Like many things in mass culture that get very popular, the cognitive dissonance between my perception of quality (or there lack of) and the ostensible popularity will always make me suspicious of some sort of put-on.

The whole spectacle of his life and death would have passed without comment from me until I saw that he had a patent on this crazy lean from "Smooth Criminal?" Its a special shoe!

And its a well drafted patent, not like the all-time most ridiculous patent ever for a comb-over. Clearly, this is a person who understands something about entertainment that I don't. I am awestruck by Micheal Jackson for the first time in my life.

In any case, I am hopeful that they will discover that he really was killed by a freak heart attack and not something that will leave lazy pundits to say "he was killed by fame" because he was not. In this bold new world where everyone rips off the Louds and Pizza boys with guitars believe they are musicians, its important to recognize that fame can be a talent beyond the talent that made you famous. For here was a man who lived for fame, worked very hard at it his whole life, and despite many adversities in other parts of his life, was very good a being famous.