Farrah Fawcett will have to wait for her E! retrospective, I suppose.

Cardiac arrest is such a blanket term and typically is the end result of some other metabolic disorder. Like lets just say erotic asphyxia. 

Thanks Paul and you have not seen anything yet.

Peace
Todd Gremmels
NREMTP

I heard about this from my wife via twitter. 

This will be one of those surprising mass-cultural moments that many, if not most Americans will remember exactly where they were when they heard it.  Boomers would use "Kennedy got shot" but for us, I prefer, Reagan got shot, Challenger Explodes, 9-11, and, if you're Spanish, alst nights upset win of the USA Soccer Team over Espana.  that sort of event.

And as Cronkite was important in the Kennedy announcement, I predict that twitter, facebook and, of all places, TMZ will get that recognition with this.  New media, or online media anyway.

So let me trace how it happened for me to hammer home this point.  As I mentioned I heard about it from @mistystarr via twitter I was just getting ready to leave my office.  But the first place I went for verification was ... twitter, I thought she was kidding and even (accidentally) tweeted just that.  Sure enough, twitter had it and confirmation (for me) came from ASHTON KUTCHER who got it from ... wait for it ... TMZ.  And they had everything right.  Then I got in the car headed for home and NPR's ATC is interviewing someone about MJJ's career and they report that he's in a COMA.  Which came from the Los Angeles times, they didn't have a person or source on the scene yet.  (Which is fine, right, that's how they operate, not being critical here, just observing).

I get home and check again on Twitter, and then TMZ, and then CNN, and various other sites, TMZ and the social media had it pretty much right, others had it wrong, they said it was a coma.  So, let me be clear here, that means that not only has @aplusk exceeded @cnnbrk in followers, in this case, he actually had a breaking news story correct, a half hour or more ahead of them.  In fact, the first old media journalist who confirmed the death (for me) was NBC's Ann Curry, but ... via Twitter.  15 minutes later the ABC world news tonight got that, too.  Incidentally after that I tried MTV, and they were still reporting the COMA on their site. I checked MTV since MJJ had such an important role in their formation and development, but they were kinda old media on this one.   

So ... I am going to forward that this may be the first mass pop cultural event that "new media" especially twitter scooped old media of radio and tv and (obviously) print.  I may not have noticed, but news is moving blindingly fast these days and since this was an important cultural figure for me and millions of others I wanted to know what I could right way.  One thing noteworthy is that twitter, and obviously TMZ are good at reporting rumors, but it will be interesting to see how well they get the back story of why he died in this way and if there are any extenuating circumstances.  I doubt, Gremmels is right about the auto erotic angle on this one, but old shoe leather journalists might be more likely to get investigate and dig that sort of thing up than the new media ... we'll see.

This is just some stuff I noticed.  

--

Now to the man himself.  Probably one of the most influential artists of all time.  Yes, I do mean ALL time.  Also important as a cross media promoter, a filmmaker, and I would say a racial pioneer, too.  Think.  How many white kids in the 80s, all over the world bought Thriller and had his posters on their walls, or wore the glove, etc.  Also (anecdote here) when i was in China the students had dances every Friday night and they had a real simple PA and no real DJ, but they didn't need one as they just played the Thriller cassette all the way through.  This is central china in the early 90s, pretty far from never land.

Dirty Diana is an awesome song, and it could I suppose be his best song overall, if you factor in the moderately edgy content (by 80s radio standards), the musicality and the fact that he played it at Wimbledon for Princess Diana, Paul, maybe.  However, As a many many many year party/wedding DJ I will tell you that the song that gets by far the most significant reaction where it counts (on the dance floor) is Billie Jean.  My favorite MJJ song it will surprise probably no one, is Man in the Mirror.  Obviously I like the cheesy message of personal accountability, but I also really like the bass part on it.  And the crescendo and the choir.  ABC is probably the second most popular of his songs, but not sure if that counts as it is Jackson 5 days.

You could do a whole two or three hour event that would appeal to a lot of people with only MJJ songs, with maybe a little Janet and Jackson 5 thrown in for good measure.  That's pretty amazing when you think about it.

Wildgoose the auto erotic thing was just an example of medibolic imbalance . Due to the recent Caridine incident (were I did not speak my gut) I had to write something about the blanket term Cardiac Arrest.

My gut on this one is that due to his skin-gender bending foray into chemically and physically altering himself he shortened his life span.

Just a hunch!!!

Peace

I've never been a Michael Jackson fan (nor a fan of most pop music) but there is an excellent cover of the Paul McCartney duet "The Girl is Mine" done by my favorite cover artist Richard Cheese. I think it's on his "I Like Dick" album. Anyway, the other voice is Stephen Hawking. (though it's most certainly a Speak n Spell synth and not actually Mr. Hawking).

There is a prison in the Philippines that is mourning the passing of Michael Jackson to Neverland.

we didn't want to see peter pan get old, if his comeback attempt had failed the paps would have torn him apart.  he was in a tight spot. theories  will fly about this whole thing being faked, even more then elvis'

The CIA killed MJ.  I mean, they _have_ to erase an embarrassing cold war entertainment icon.

Wait, no, McCartney and his estate and family arranged for his death, wait, no, it was the mob, wait, no, the gestapo or like the illuminati or like the SS, umm.  I've got it... aliens.  Wasn't he from outer space, anyway?

I think just plain The King would do Barrett.

Peace

i still remember reading the article a couple of years ago about MJ wanting to have a 50 foot robotic replica of himself roam around the desert outside Lost Wages...errm...Las Vegas.

creepy.