WOW – Michael Jackson is Gone

Thousands may be dead in Iran and who knows what the fate of the protest is at this point, but Michael Jackson’s passing stopped the world.

I was never a huge fan and have to admit I made my fair share of disparaging MJ remarks (sorry – he was a freak AND perhaps the greatest pop star of all time).

The first song of his that really sticks is Ben – the theme song to a rat-horror movie (you couldn’t get away from that song the summer the movie was released).

And of course there’s always Thriller (you couldn’t get away from that one either).

Interestingly enough, another one of our great losses, Forrest Ackerman, did a cameo? in Thriller -

The two of them kind of encompass an era – not an academically defined one, but a definable one nonetheless, something like the pre-digital entertainment era.

The older you get, the fewer cultural icons you’re left with, and it hardly matters whether you liked them or hated them, appreciated their contributions or thought it was tripe.? They created the background of your life, the reliable paradigms that never shifted.?? Now that paradigm is fading, not shifting.? The background begins to disappear, the holes growing larger each and every day.

But now we’re in the digital era and you can watch all of that old crap any time you want.? I guess you can call that progress in a way. Those icons may not be alive anymore, but they’re still around and will be forever. Like those zombies in Thriller.