*jaw drops*

[feliciakw]

Farrah's death was expected. Michael Jackson's was not.

I was a huge Michael Jackson fan during the Thriller album's height of popularity. I was in 8th grade/a freshman. My li'l bro and I loved the video, and watched it every night when it aired promptly at the same time every night on MTV (sponsored in part by Miller Beer, which had some hilarious commercials). I wore out a copy of the album on cassette. I had the book of the piano arrangements. I read the unauthorized biographies (most of which I'd be hard pressed to remember today). I was fascinated by his dancing (of course), and before he started in on all the extreme surgeries, I found him to be quite attractive. (He was such a cute little kid during the Jackson 5 era.) And at one point, I received as a gift (Christmas? birthday?) one of the collectable dolls. I think it might still be in my mom and dad's attic. He's wearing his Billie Jean costume, iirc.

"Beat It," "Billie Jean," and of course "Thriller" are probably my faves off that album, and I'm extremely familiar with the choreography therein.

I also really enjoyed the follow-up album, Bad, and the video to "Smooth Criminal" was excellent. Very cool.

I started losing interest after the Bad album, which is just about the time he started doing things like buying the Elephant Man's bones and all his extreme surgeries. I'd lost track of him by the time the pedophilia scandals broke. I watch the news footage now, and it's not even the same person I remember enthusing about back in high school.

Two icons from my formative and coming-of-age years have died today. I'm . . . not sure what to do with that.

Comments

[kerravonsen]

He died? What I heard on the news was that he'd been taken to hospital with a heart attack, but that was last night, not this morning.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

I only found out when Geo got home from work and told me. I sat there, "gobsmacked" I believe is the appropriate term, with my mouth hanging open and thinking "Whaa????"

Per the news report I heard, he was taken to the hospital, in a coma, and he died at approximately 3:15pm Pacific Time.

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

It's been a very...well, newsworthy day. I sat watching CNN for an hour with my parents when I got home.

I was never a fan of Michael's, particularly, but I often remarked on how that upbeat, cheerful little boy turned into a remarkably unhappy adult. He *was* a one-of-a-kind talent, and it's a tragedy that his life went so far off the rails.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

At least the Jeff Goldblum thing turned out to be a rumor. This day was quite sad enough as-is.