Posted by: Sister Toldjah on June 25, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Good grief! Two in one day. They say things like this happen in “threes.” I hope they’re wrong!
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop giant Michael Jackson, who took to the stage as a child star and set the world dancing to exuberant rhythms for decades, died on Thursday, TMZ website reported. He was 50.
There was no official confirmation of the reported death and spokespersons for Jackson could not be reached for comment.
“We’ve just learned Michael Jackson has died,” TMZ said.
“Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back,” the entertainment site said.
It added, “A source tells us Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived.”
Earlier, the Los Angeles Times said the singer had been rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital by fire department paramedics who found him not breathing when they arrived at the singer’s home.
The newspaper said paramedics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the scene before taking him to the UCLA Medical Center hospital.
Jackson had been due to start a series of comeback concerts in London on July 13 running until March 2010. The singer, whose hits included “Thriller” and “Billie Jean,” had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months.
I don’t know whether Jackson was guilty of the child molestation charges that were leveled at him – I suspect he was. But before many of us knew him as Michael Jackson – alleged child molester, some of us knew him from as far back as the Jackson 5 days. I remember him from the 80s and how I dug the Thriller album and video. I even had a poster of him on my wall. A girl in my junior high school had a replica of that red leather jacket he wore in the Thriller video. His musical talents were immense. His name was gold in the 80s and in the early to mid 90s, but then things headed south with the accusations of child molestation, and all the photos we saw of him where he didn’t even look human.
Tinseltown’s shedding a lot of tears tonight.
Update – 8:10 PM: A reader reminds me that Ed McMahon is the “third” of the “three.” I had totally forgotten about that.
OK. No more celeb deaths this week, please!
Velvet Lair
the three is already met with Ed McMahon
You’re right! I completely forgot about that.
My God have mercy on his soul I haven’t been a fan of his since Rockin’ Robin, but he was truly talented. – Lorica
That’s ashame. He had some good music. More and more people are dying young.
May Michael Jackson rest in peace despite some of the negative things said about him.
Not this resident. Jackson was a freak and a child molester who should have been in prison or a mental hospital. Yes, he had a screwed up childhood (seriously so) that damaged him, but he was never held accountable for what he did. Maybe I’m just disgusted by this drawing attention from the people of Iran fighting and dying for something that really matters, or maybe I’m just cold-hearted, but Jackson’s death is of no consequence to me.
Sidenote: I work at UCLA, where Jackson was taken after his heart attack. That was about 2:30 this afternoon, I think. By the time I left at 5, the sky overhead was filled with more choppers than I’d ever seen in one place, and sirens could be heard everywhere. It was really quite a sight.
For some reason I am reminded of this poem by Sidney Keyes, which is the epigraph to Richard Adams’s novel “Watership Down.”
He said, “Dance for me” and he said,
“You are too beautiful for the wind
To pick at, or the sun to burn.” He said,
“I’m a poor tattered thing, but not unkind
To the sad dancer and the dancing dead.”
Sidney Keyes, four postures of death
I wasn’t a big fan, but he did some things I liked.
I think he didn’t like himself very much. I was sorry he had all that cosmetic surgery; he was much better-looking before it.
IMO he self-destructed, and that’s a great pity.
A sad day in the entertainment industry, for sure. His behavior was bizarre and troubled in his later years, which was a real shame because he was one very talented man. I’ll always remember his ‘Thriller’ video, my all-time favorite hands-down. May he rest in peace.
Here we see the strange dichotomy of fame….one who was groomed and talented who squandered his fame and another who though born with the blessing of beauty, chose her steps carefully and used her fame to make people aware of bigger issues that impacted society.
My heart goes out to Ryan and Desmond O’Neal who are surely grieving Farah’s passing. I pray for comfort and a peace in knowing she is finally out of this world of pain.
I just pray that the Jackson Family will get it’s act together and do what is appropriate for his children.
It’s very ironic that Wacko Jacko bought the Elephant Man’s bones (I mean really, couldn’t he let poor old John Merrick rest in peace?). John Merrick spent his whole life trying to be a normal human being instead of a freak, and Jackson spent his whole life trying, and succeeding, to be a freak instead of a normal human being.
Nature’s symmetry at it’s finest I guess.