Neverland

Since it is the Fourth of July and I am a very patriotic person, I feel I should write about something related to this great holiday. Instead, I decided to write about something we are all sick of hearing about - the death of Michael Jackson.

Reason being, I am fascinated by how the media is reacting to and covering this event. It has been over a week now and there is still daily coverage with very little new facts to report. There has been speculation on everything from whether or not he had a secret girlfriend to who the biological father of his children was, to, of course, what type of drugs were in his system. Several networks have even gone so far as to track down "Bubbles", his former pet chimp (who is now apparently in an animal sanctuary and according to reports was never visited by Michael -shocking!).

Everything about this has a circus atmosphere, from his father Joe's embarrassing press conference where he bascially announced Michael will bring in even more money now that he's dead to the plans to hold a funeral service at the Staples Center (where they considered actually charging fans admission).

I would not call myself an avid Michael Jackson fan, but I do like many of his songs - going back to the Jackson 5 days even, and I grew up during his peak in the 80s and remember being excited when the "Thriller" video was going to premiere on MTV.

Since that time of course his behavior and appearance grew increasingly bizarre and with strong evidence pointing toward him being a pedophile I lost any respect I had for him. Still, it is a sad story. When you look at him as a young boy performing with Jackson 5 and the talent that he had and what he became, it's a very cautionary tale about what the cult of celebrity can do to a person.

I suppose his dream to live in Neverland has come true - he will cease to age and he will have a certain form of immortality... as the vultures circle and divvy up his fortune.