Michael Jackson is DEAD!

When I heard the news, I was strangely not affected by it. I say strangely b/c many of my friends kept going on and on on how saw they were. I've rarely been emotional when it comes to celebrity deaths. I didn't know these people and while I may have loved their work, as in the case of Ray Charles, Barry White, Joe Strummer and James Brown, I have never felt a sense of loss or grief. The only person I felt sad for was George Harrison, but that's because I love the Beatles so much and George's own solo work is beautiful.

That's when I realized that MJ meant a lot to many people, but he didn't mean that much to me. I love the J5 records and I love Off The Wall, but I guess b/c he was so weird, and more of a pop entertainer, I moved past MJ a long time ago. But the following days of media made me realize that no matter how screwed up he was as a person, he was an immense talent and no other person except for Elvis, and James Brown had that much influence on what music is like today.

So many tributes out there, I find it really strange that I am not more interested in paying tribute to him. But again it comes down to what he meant to me and I guess he didn't mean that much. I was more saddened by the news of IZ the Wiz, a legendary graffiti writer from Style Wars than I was when MJ died.

But I can only assume at how sad I will be when Keith Richards, Stevie Wonder and Johnny Marr pass away b/c their music and their imprint on this world meant a lot to me. And that's what it comes down to, MJ meant so much to so many that it's incredible.