1958-2009

Oh my God. I swear I didn't believe it. It was just cardiac arrest. And then it's confirmed.

PEOPLE.

Michael Jackson passed away.

I don't even know where to begin. It was confirmed while I was driving to find some crab legs for dinner. I almost jammed on the brakes. From Stop & Shop (the men behind the counter declared "Man, that motherfu&*!@ had mad talent yo") to the ride home, it was like the world just stopped for a while. One of the local radio stations I was listening to was playing a tribute to him all night, so I turned it up for the car ride home. A girl called in to request her favorite song. The DJ said "What's your request?" She said "Ummm, like, my favorite Michael song is that Free Willy song." Okay, really? MJ just died and you request "HEAL THE WORLD?!" I mean, any MJ song will do, but really? Not Thriller? Not Smooth Criminal (one of my faves)? She deserved to be clubbed in the face for that one.

I called Ryan and said "Can you believe it???" He said "Yea, I'm on the bus and I heard this girl have 4 different phone conversations with people about him. And it's all Harvard Square was talking about." I get home and turn the radio back on to listen to my boy MJ. And I remembered how much I loved him as a kid. I mean, I had this horrible picture of him with a jheri curl sitting on a step and I would look at that picture everyday and declare that I would marry him someday (yea well...I was a kid, shut up). I was beginning to cook and started watching CNN and all the coverage. Ryan says, "Soooo Farrah Fawcett?" I looked at him and said, "RESPECT! Michael Jackson just died!" He said, "Uh, she was famous too! She had cancer!" I said "Well, I guess she died on the wrong day." And while that's dark humor, it really DOES suck for her. Because honestly, I mean....yea. Think about it. His death overshadowed hers fairly quickly. And it sucks. Because she had amazing talent too and she was going through an honest fight for her life. I feel bad, but man. Just a shitty day for everyone I guess.

SIDENOTE: As I type this, I'm watching "So You Think You Can Dance." It's the elimination show, and because it's live, the producer started talking about the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. He talked about her for maybe 30 seconds and talked about Michael for a few MINUTES and also showed a Thriller clip.....I'm JUST sayin.

So anyway, I just keep going on and on about it because I can't get over it. Then I say "This is HUGE! His death is HUGE, and by default, will overshadow Farrah Fawcett's, and the effed up part is that nothing is intentional. And if anyone else died today, their families might be watching the television and looking at Michael." Ryan says "MAN Lex! That's awful. So if I died tomorrow, who would be amazing enough to trump the mourning of my death?" I couldn't even think of anything so I'm like "Uh, I dunno. Maybe The Ting Ting's?" He starts laughing and said "Really?! The Ting Ting's? The Ting Ting's trump your husband's death?" We laughed a little, because we needed to laugh. Because I find solace in dark humor, whether it offends or not. Because laughing helps me remember sometimes that I'm human, that I MYSELF am only a spirit in a body and that I can die at any minute. MJ was only 50! Younger than my parents! It's insane! And Farrah Fawcett; it really just shows that cancer doesn't pick and choose. It's rampant and I pray that my generation will be the generation to find a cure for it all.

But in the end (even with the "I need an adult" charges against him), remember that no matter how F*#!ED he was, I guarantee that he entertained YOU at some point in your life. You tried to moonwalk, you tried to thrust your pelvis (no matter what you had goin on down there), you wore one of those shitty glitter gloves, you own a CD, you rock out to ONE MJ song on your iPOD; at SOME point, Michael Jackson entertained you. And for that..............thank you for an amazing 50 years. You will be missed.