Timmy84 said:

Yeah, I was just too lazy to write it out an d the appreviation is not familiar to most people. TWYGFBP...

LittleBLUECorvette said:

well, I adore so many pre-adult-solo songs, I'm madly in love with What Goes Around...

on twitters breaking news it says "Michael Jackson's PR firm says StaplesCenter.com has received more than 500 million hits since 11.30 PDT, an average of 120,000 per second."

mimi07 said:

graecophilos said:

Respectfully, I doubt it. I think everyone-black and white and otherwise, recognizes that MJ had some sort of mental and emotional illnesses that contributed to his self mutilation.

I am frankly surprised that anyone ascribes it to a lack of wanting to be black....the man made himself look unhuman!, He did not look white, Asian, male, female, or anything naturally human at the end.

And with respect to black folks, I think we are all quite used to the changes that entertainers go through with their appearance that some may liken to "whitening" their appearance. Blacks folks support acts like Beyonce who is in my view, regularly emulating a white barbie doll with a headful of blonde fake hair hanging from her head. Im not throwing stones just giving an example that although MJ went to an extreme many Black acts have thinned noses, straightened, dyed, and worn fake hair, etc...in ways that could have been construed as "whitening".
[Edited 7/3/09 14:52pm]

mimi07 said:

mimi07 said:

I wish they would have just had it first come first serve for the tickets (still having a hard time wrapping my brain around having tickets to a funeral). There is no way to not cause mass disappointment with the lottery system they have in place now.

My heart goes out to all the people who registered for the tickets while I've got to say, I find it all a little morbid.

Peace!

mimi07 said:

omg

kalelvisj said:

Yeah it is. That's wild.

kalelvisj said:

It's a public memorial service, not a funeral. The funeral arrangements have not been made yet.

Timmy84 said:

And just plain ol' TACKY beyond belief!!

Augusta Could Teach LA About Holding Event



LA is planning a memorial for Michael Jackson, this has officials at the Staples Center in Los Angeles scrambling to get ready, but LA could take some pointers from Augusta when it comes to honoring musical legends Channel 6’s George Eskola has the story.

By George Eskola
WJBF News Channel 6 Senior Reporter
Published: July 3, 2009

((Augusta GA)) It could be considered the buildings best moment.

“It was a good feeling to know we pulled it off, with no incidents with everybody working together,” said former Coliseum Authority member J.R. Riles.

Right now the Staples Center in Los Angeles is planning a memorial for Michael Jackson.

Two and a half years ago the world said good-bye to James Brown with a historic ceremony at the James Brown Arena.

Mayor Deke Copenhaver called it his proudest moment in office.

When it comes to honoring musical legends Augusta can tell LA, been there done that.

85 hundred people packed into the arena, including Michael Jackson.

Robert “Flash Gordon the former GM at the Augusta Entertainment Complex had been on the job less than 30 days when it was announced the arena would host James Brown’s home-going.

“To do something like this you needed a lot of cooperation that was something we found we did have in Augusta when this happened,” he said.

Gordon says the arena got tremendous cooperation from the Brown family, the Sheriff’s Office as well as Michael Jacksons security people who let city officials know a just a couple of day before he would be attending.

“They told us about when he would be in and everything went really smooth,” said Gordon.

The Jackson memorial is still being planned, but the owners of the Staples Center were not considered smooth when first announcing they were going to charge people 25 dollars to attend the event.

“Oh no, no we didn’t even consider anything like this we didn’t even charge for parking,” said Gordon.

In these tough economic times LA can expect to rack up expenses holding the ceremony.

It cost 50 thousand dollars to have Richmond County deputies handle security for the James Brown event.

And about 20 arena personnel worked from three in the morning until eleven that night.

Civic Center officials say their pay and overtime topped ten thousand dollars.

Copycat said:

Then they should have waited until AFTER the funeral to do it!

How else would fans get to celebrate his life but at a large venue like Staples? Having thousands of people descend on LA on Tuesday to gain entry would be a logistic & safety nightmare. The family did the right thing.

Copycat said:

I still fear a chaotic scene though.

"No tickets? Stay your ass at home." That works for me.

cdcgold said:

Blanket is a little Mike clone, big hands like Mike, look at the taller, older boy in blue, Blankets hands are as big as his!. I really do believe Blanket is Mike's.

Both the boys have MJ's original jaw shape too as far as i can see. those kids were his, biological father or not, but Blanket? damn!

Copycat said:

A true celebration of the incredible life he had, allowing the MILLIONS of fans he has to participate, requires PLANNING. I really hope that I am wrong about this but I think going about it this way is STILL going to be a logistic & safety nightmare.

dreamfactory313 said:

bullshit I don't think any server can handle that many hits.

lazycrockett said:

The site would have to crash if it was that many, right?

Timmy84 said:

It crashed I think, Im in the WTF mode.

Jacksons To Hold Private Ceremony Before Memorial at Staples Center, More Events Planned
July 3



Before the public memorial for Michael Jackson at Staples Center on Tuesday, there will be a small, private ceremony earlier that morning for family and some special guests at an undisclosed location, his brother Jermaine Jackson told CNN's Larry King tonight.

Jermaine Jackson gave King a tour of Neverland Ranch, showing the talk show host some of his brother's favorite spots on the 3,000-acre ranch and pointing to the spot near the train station where he said he would love to see his little brother's body put to rest.

"The hardest thing is where do you rest Michael Jackson?" Jermaine Jackson said. "Everything he did was so over the top and there are people coming from all over the world in groups of twenties and hundreds of thousands."

Jermaine Jackson said the family struggled with choosing a location for the memorial because no location seemed large enough or adequate enough. He said he is still concerned that Staples Center might prove too small for the thousands of people he expects will want to pay their respects to the King of Pop.

"We want a lot of the industry to be there as much as possible," he said. "But Larry, there's no place even big enough. We talked about the Washington Monument, we talked about the Coliseum. We talked about a lot of places. Larry, there are 20's of thousands just from the UK.... We worked with the city authorities and they're trying their best with the time frame we have and we're hoping that everybody's safe and that things are going to be locked down pretty much."

To know Michael, his brother said, is to listen to the lyrics of his songs.

"We want the world to take part in this event, but at the same time we're mourning," he said. "We're mourning because this is the most incredible human being there will ever be. And I'll tell you why. I'll quote something to you, 'I'm starting with the man in the mirror. I'm asking him to change his ways. And no message could have been any clearer. If you want to make the world a better place, you have to look at yourself and make a change.' When you listen to the content of songs, the melodies, the messages, the videos, the concerts, that's who he was. That's who he is."

Jermaine Jackson also said the family intends to have a series of memorials around the country.



http://latimesblogs.latim...enter.html
[Edited 7/3/09 15:38pm]

Marrk said:

YOu know what´s interesting. Blanket is a little clone of Mike and Prince does not seem to look much like MIke, but when you look at Prince and Blanket, they do look alike actually.

Timmy84 said:

CNN just reported that the website did crash.

GirlBrother said:

wow, hald a billion is interested!

cdcgold said:

dreamfactory313 said:

Thanks.

Copycat said:

Yeah too bad most wont listen to that tho. Tuesday will be a big mess, I just have a feeling. Why did they pick that vennue anyway? They should have had the memorial at Neverland if you ask me.

Copycat said:

I read the last sentence with the side eye. Then again I reacted similarly to James when his body was taken from Georgia to New York at the Apollo.

Cinnamon234 said:

Yeah the Neverland memorial would've been nicer. Only chaos would be helicopters hovering over head.