mimi07 said:

True. I am not finding anything to confirm that they will be airing it though.

This week i should have been dancing to MJ's music and seeing him for the first time live in London at the o2.....but that was not god's wish...

We miss you MJ ...R.I.P.




Everything that could be said has been said .....UK Grime artist Sway sum's up the feeling of all Londoners .....

The King....Full Stop

utopia7 said:

i know i'm dreading today, i'm adding it to my list of my worst days.

i hate thursdays
june makes me sad now and it used tobe my fav month cause my bday is in june
june 25
july 7...depressing

this whole summer freakin SUCKED, i wish i could turn back time...sigh
[Edited 9/3/09 1:16am]

aerdna25 said:

so cute!

Timmy84 said:

Who the fuck is this?

i don't know looka like hagrid from harry potter

isn't michael just the cutest

mimi07 said:

Yeah.

Blond Mike - YUCK!

BTW, the fact that I like that YRMW pictures does not mean that I didn´t like Mike before the surgeries.

LondonStyle said:

Thank You for posting ... That was heart felt. Michael Jackson helped sparked my soul in a huge way. I always just think he is always there,in LA. with a tragic event(s) it seems like it's an end to an era..

mimi07 said:

yeah my B-Day is in June as well so i know how you mean

Dead stars and classic art will surround Michael Jackson
Sept. 3rd, 2009 updated 48 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Seventy days after his sudden death, Michael Jackson will be interred in what may or may not be his final resting place Thursday evening.

Only his family and closest friends will attend the private funeral inside the ornate Great Mausoleum on the grounds of Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California.
The news media, which has closely covered every aspect of Jackson's death, will be kept at a distance, with cameras no closer than the cemetery's main gate.
Little is known about the planned ceremony, though CNN has confirmed that singer Gladys Knight, a longtime friend to Jackson, will perform. Her song has not been disclosed.
The massive mausoleum, which is normally open to tourists, was closed Wednesday as preparations were completed for the funeral. A security guard blocking its entrance said it would reopen to the public on Friday.
Fans of Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and dozens of other celebrities buried on the grounds have flocked to Forest Lawn-Glendale for decades, but Jackson may outdraw them all.
It is unclear how close tourists will be allowed to Jackson's resting place. Security guards -- aided by cameras -- keep a constant vigil over the graves and crypts, which are surrounded by a world-class collection of art and architecture.
The Forest Lawn Web site boasts that the mausoleum, which draws its architectural inspiration from the Campo Santo in Italy, "has been called the "New World's Westminster Abbey" by Time Magazine.
Visitors will see "exact replicas of Michelangelo's greatest works such as David, Moses, and La Pieta" and "Leonardo da Vinci's immortal Last Supper re-created in brilliant stained glass; two of the world's largest paintings," the Web site says.
Jackson's burial has been delayed by division among Jackson family members, though it was matriarch Katherine Jackson who would make the final decision, brother Jermaine Jackson recently told CNN.
He preferred to see his youngest brother laid to rest at his former Neverland Ranch home, north of Los Angeles in Santa Barbara County, California.
That idea was complicated by neighbors who vowed to oppose allowing a grave in the rural area -- and by Jackson family members who said the singer would not want to return to the home where he faced child molestation charges, of which he was ultimately acquitted.
The mystery of where Michael Jackson would be buried became a media obsession in the weeks after his death.
After his body was loaded onto a helicopter at UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center hours following his June 25 death, it stayed in the custody of the Los Angeles County coroner for an autopsy.
It was only later disclosed that Jackson's corpse was kept in a refrigerated room at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn cemetery until his casket was carried by motorcade to downtown Los Angeles for a public memorial service in the Staples Center arena.
Again, speculation about Jackson's whereabouts grew when the media lost track of his casket after his brothers carried it out of sight inside the arena. Though the family has not publicly confirmed where the body was taken, most reports placed it back at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn while awaiting his family's decision.
Though Thursday's interment may settle one Michael Jackson mystery, a more serious one remains. The coroner announced last week that he had ruled Jackson's death a homicide. A summary of the coroner's report said the anesthetic propofol and the sedative lorazepam were the primary drugs responsible for the singer's death.
Los Angeles police detectives have not concluded their criminal investigation and no one has been charged.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/S...n.funeral/

dearmother said:

I notice that too, but it's mainly those who became fans in the last 20 years. They don't seem to understand from the bad era onwards he had already gone TOO far with the surgery. They actual think Michael looked his best during the Bad/Dangerous eras, when by that time he looked nothing like his original self.
[Edited 9/3/09 5:31am]

whatsgoingon said:

I am one of those relatively new fans, I have been a fan since 2002, and I just have to clarify its not that I think his modern looks are more beautiful then his old looks. It’s nothing to do with beauty. Its the modern music, persona etc that I think most of the newer fans are in love with therefore we like the modern Michael better. Despite whether its tragic or not, him doing what he did to himself, the way he started to act, and the way his music became is what made him so legendary. Theres always tragedy associated with really iconic people and I dont think as many people would of identified with Michael if he had of just stayed the same Mike of 79’, or would of got such an Elvis like following.

I've been a fan my whole life and my favorite MJ look is Bad-era. Specifically, how he looked in "Moonwalker".

And it's not because his skin was lighter then. I just think that was his peak in terms of his style, he just looked like no-one else on the planet, the way he physically looked seemed perfectly in tune with his dress sense and the way his music was sounding at the time, too.

whatsgoingon said:[quote]

dearmother said:

That's not true. By that point everything was the same bar the nose, skin color, makeup and hair. Obviously just those things alone are going to alter a persons overall look dramatically, but I could still see the old Mike in there.

Militant said:

You guys prove my point. probably non-black, became fans from the bad era onwards yet preferred MJ loooking as far away from his original self. Infact Michael was far more stylish back in his OTW/Thriller era. I think his fashion sense got worse as time went on.

WildStyle said:[quote]

whatsgoingon said:

Me too.

Anyways, I don´t understand why should I like only only the Mike prior the surgeries. I can see his beauty in any era (not saying he never had a bad day). I love Mike for being Mike, not for his color or face (even though I like that, too)

The all time beautiful Mike:













[Edited 9/3/09 8:04am]

Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet.
Let it not be a death but completeness.
Let love melt into memory and pain into songs.
Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest.
Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night.
Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your last words in silence.
I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way.

God Bless Michael, and the Jackson Family, his children, us his fans as this is it!

I love you Michael.

(I can't remember who wrote this poem)

BTW if anyone has this without the watermark, could you please post it?

Star-filled Mausoleum Awaits Michael Jackson
September 3, 2009


One month after a lavish public memorial for Michael Jackson, the pop singer's family prepared to inter him privately Thursday in a mausoleum filled with legendary entertainers.
On Wednesday, a judge said Jackson's estate will bear the funeral costs, which were characterized by an attorney as "extraordinary."

It was disclosed in court that 12 burial spaces were being purchased at Forest Lawn Glendale, about eight miles north of downtown Los Angeles, but no details were offered on how they would be used.

Jackson will rest in the cemetery's Great Mausoleum with Hollywood stars including Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and W.C. Fields.

Jackson's funeral won't end the legal drama over his drug-induced death at age 50, which authorities have labeled a homicide.

No criminal charges have been filed over his June 25 death, which came on the cusp of London concerts meant to restore Jackson to his once-incandescent stardom.

Last week, coroner's officials said they believed Jackson's death was homicide, and his death certificate has been amended to reflect that. It cites "injection by another" as the fatal injury.

Investigators have said a mix of the powerful anesthetic propofol and another sedative killed the pop singer. The new record lists "acute propofol intoxication" as the main cause of death and "benzodiazepine effect" as another significant contributor.

The certificate does not mention Dr. Conrad Murray, who was Jackson's personal physician. He told detectives that he gave the singer a series of sedatives and propofol to try to help him sleep.

The coroner's determination of homicide makes it easier for prosecutors to seek criminal charges, but does not necessarily mean a crime was committed.




http://www.usatoday.com/l...rial_N.htm

whatsgoingon said:

Something my wife pointed out, It's his eyes man, they never changed, expressions too, some things despite a shitload of surgery can never change. I could always see that, don't know why some folks couldn't. if he had to have surgery, dude shoulda stuck with what he had at Motown25.

Jackson's Legacy Endures Through Music and Videos
September 3, 2009


At Michael Jackson's revival of a memorial service, Smokey Robinson slapped the lectern and smiled.
Michael "will never really be gone," he said emphatically. "He is going to live forever and ever and ever and ever."

Robinson's conviction was a balm to the tearful Staples Center crowd that gathered July 7 to remember the King of Pop. No doubt such sentiments will surface again today among family and fans as the singer is finally laid to rest in a private burial at Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, Calif.

But as years go by, will Robinson's declaration prove true? Plenty of celebrities have stolen the spotlight in death, only to see their memories fade with the passage of time.

Princess Diana's funeral shut down London and riveted viewers from Kalamazoo to Karachi. A decade later, her role — as a fashionable mother of two with a passion for global causes — has been filled by Michelle Obama.

Frank Sinatra once seemed so synonymous with devil-may-care cool that setting a movie in Las Vegas (cue Swingers) practically required referencing that Rat Pack reign. But lately, his chain-smoking men's club seems more a vestige of a less-enlightened age.

Even Elvis Presley, arguably the most enduring of our cultural comets, is burning less brightly 32 years after his death. Many of his once-revolutionary hits would strike a quaint note on a contemporary playlist, and his pop-culture presence seems largely confined to cartoon soundtracks and ubiquitous impersonators.

Jackson's quest for immortality will have its obstacles. Though Elvis' bloated capes-and-collars period was a brief kicker to a storied career, Jackson's last 20 years were light on hits but heavy on high drama, from the hyperbaric chamber and pet chimp to child molestation allegations and disfiguring plastic surgeries.

It remains to be seen whether the memories — and the music — of Jackson's golden era are potent enough to offset not only those oddities but also the controversies that continue to swirl around him, from his abuse of hospital-grade painkillers to his death by homicide.


Challenges to Jackson legacy

Jackson biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli yearns for a day "when we'll all get back to the music." But taking into account his friend's now controversial passing, he concedes "it may take some time for that to happen."

And that's as long as no new revelations surface, says Brian Hiatt, associate editor at Rolling Stone. "If there are more scandals uncovered, that could irreparably damage the legacy," he says.

Another potential problem: legal wrangling between the estate's executors and anyone vying for a piece of the gold mine.

"Managing a deceased artist is often harder than managing a live one, because sometimes the right answer is 'no, don't release that song' or 'don't agree to the sale of that image,' " says Jerry Schilling, a longtime confidant of Presley's and one-time creative affairs director of Elvis Presley Enterprises, the benchmark of iron-fisted estate management. "You have to be in agreement."

Without a unified stance, intellectual property "can often end up in the public domain, so you have to have all interests aligned or you can destroy the asset," says lawyer Robert Alpert, who specializes in intellectual property issues in the New York offices of the firm Bryan Cave.

"For all of Jackson's bad press, there's an amazing amount of goodwill toward him, which makes his a great property to build on," Alpert says. "But you have to be clear and consistent about the image you want to project through time for it to last. It can be cheapened very easily. And then it'll be forgotten."

At the moment, Jackson couldn't be more top of mind. He has sold 5 million albums in 2009, up from sales of 297,000 year to date before his death, and his Number Ones is 2009's best-selling album, overtaking Taylor Swift's Fearless, according to Nielsen SoundScan. There's also a $60 million deal with Sony Pictures for a movie drawn from Jackson's rehearsals for the 50 London concerts that would have started in July.

"A legacy like his has to be rooted in the musical catalog, which is a staggering 40 years of making records," says Hilary Rosen, former CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America. "But a lasting brand always needs both steak and sizzle. Sizzle is part of his legacy, that of the tragic hero figure. There's no need to erase or embellish it."

It also helps that the steak is Grade A. Rosen recalls attending the 1988 Grammy Awards and seeing an "absolutely jaded industry audience leap to their feet when Michael's silhouette appeared behind the scrim. His was not cheap celebrity."


Music 'will keep him alive'

Jackson's shocking death at age 50 — on the eve of what some say was sure to be a concert-driven comeback — has in essence given former fans turned off by the singer's peccadilloes the green light to revel in that musical genius.

"I've always said Michael was amazing, but I do sense that now it's OK for others to appreciate his magic," says Raquel Choyce, president of the Las Vegas-based Michael Jackson's United Nation International Fan Club. Among the club's 900 members are fans as young as 10. "What will keep him alive are the wonderful messages in his music."

And messages sent in a digital bottle have a good chance of sailing through time. Jackson had the good fortune of being a child of the television age, whose intricacies he later mastered. His Thriller-era videos both broke him onto MTV and destroyed the band-filmed-while-lip-syncing approach to the genre. Those music videos, and their influence on the stars of today, also play a crucial role in perpetuating Jackson's iconic status.

"Let's face it, Billie Jeanis never really going to sound bad," says Rolling Stone's Hiatt. "That song is 26 years old, but it sounds way more current than (Elvis' first recording) would have sounded at the time of his death in 1977. With Michael, you've got everyone from Usher to Justin Timberlake drawing from his stuff. That's what will help keep him alive for 10 or 20 years, or more."

Decades hence, it won't matter that few remember seeing Jackson's dance moves firsthand or recall waiting for his electric videos to make their debut, Hiatt says. Jackson's music is already so intertwined with today's sounds that his influence isn't likely to be forgotten.

In fact, Gail Mitchell, senior editor at Billboard magazine, uses a different metric to set Jackson apart from other music stars: his lack of recent success.

"Michael Jackson sold out 50 concerts in a matter of hours, this despite not having a recent hit song or record and, truth be told, being an artist who really only had four big albums a long time ago," from Off the Wall(1979)to Dangerous(1991), Mitchell says. "How many artists could do that? I may be idealistic, but I think his legacy will trump all others."

Schilling, too, says Jackson has what it takes to endure: "If you are loved by the world, have an impressive body of work, and there's a huge and organized machine running your estate, the sky's the limit.

"Both Elvis and Michael had their personal issues in life, maybe like most big stars do. But they also were both fundamentally about making the world happy. That's a powerful thing."

The Jackson team should take stock of what the singer has in the vaults "and plan a very strategic release of that material," says Peter Sealey, former marketing chief at Coca-Cola and Columbia Pictures, who teaches entertainment marketing at Claremont (Calif.) Graduate University.

"It's sad but true that those who die before their time have the ability to endure through the ages because they didn't live long enough to make bad movies or late-night infomercials, all of which dilute your brand," Sealey says. "Managed correctly, Jackson, with his body of work, should be a star toward the end of this century."

Graceland, Neverland


An invaluable tool in stoking the memories of a dead pop icon is a place to celebrate his or her life. Elvis has Graceland, but in Jackson's case the destination could be anywhere from a proposed traveling exhibit of his personal effects to a Las Vegas reinterpretation of Neverland. Some have mentioned Jackson's boyhood home in Gary, Ind., as a fitting shrine for fans, but at 24-by-28 feet, it couldn't accommodate the inevitable stampede.

A permanent location is crucial, says Harriette Cole, acting editor in chief and creative director of Ebony magazine, which has chronicled all the Jacksons' lives from their late-'60s blossoming. "Practically speaking, ticket sales (to a Jackson version of Graceland) would help pay off a lot of debt. But it would also prove important in preserving Michael's legacy, as a place to remember what he was all about."

Meanwhile, Gary isn't wasting any time. The town is planning a Jackson family museum, says Mayor Rudy Clay. "We're working on it," he says. "Twenty years from now, you won't find anyone who doesn't know Michael, unless they're Rip van Winkle. History often shows us that with the great stars, they become bigger in death than they were in life."

Biographer Taraborrelli says that one advantage of time is that it can erase life's scars.

"Michael's iconic status will grow stronger because it will no longer be clouded with these personal issues," says Taraborrelli, who met the singer when he was a 10-year-old sensation.

"I'd like to think that he'd have had a peaceful future had he lived, but you can never be sure of that. Instead, now all we're left with is the music, which is the way he would have wanted it."

Our 'death anxiety'

But there's another possibility: that this isn't really about Michael's legacy but our fears.

This perception of cultural heroes as immortal "serves to alleviate death anxiety," says Pelin Kesebir, psychology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Two years ago, Kesebir asked two groups of students how long they thought Jackson would be remembered after his death. One group said 60 years, but the other group, which first had to write a lengthy essay about their own mortality, predicted 104 years.

For fans, Jackson's death will be perceived "as the annihilation of something they inwardly deemed to be imperishable. But in time, they will derive a sense of stamina from his symbolic immortality."

Amish Gandhi says he's intrigued by that theory. "I never thought of it that way," says Gandhi, who created the Michael Jackson R.I.P. page on Facebook moments after Jackson's death was confirmed.

But ultimately for Gandhi — and likely countless other die-hard fans — the endurance of Jackson's legacy comes down to nothing more complicated than great music.

"I grew up in Africa and India, and he was just a part of everyday life for us," says Gandhi, now a new-media product manager in New York. "That music will go on and on and on."




http://www.usatoday.com/l...gacy_N.htm

EmeraldSkies said:

It will be airing , I seen several articles today that said it and CNN made mention of it yesterday I won't be watching though the Memorial was enough for me.

babybugz said:

Picking Michael Jackson's Burial Place: Security Was Key
By Bryan Alexander / Los Angeles Thursday, Sep. 03, 2009

Many aspects of the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park would have delighted Michael Jackson, who is being buried in the Glendale, Calif., park on Thursday night. It is, in its way, a kind of necrological version of his Neverland estate, filled with Hollywood pomp, kitsch and idiosyncrasy: rolling hills; art so classic, it's almost camp; and an impressive collection of the relics of the famous dead. But above all, Michael Joseph Jackson's family will take comfort in knowing that their often reclusive son will probably be undisturbed by prying fans and press. "Security was highly critical in the final decision," a source close to the family tells TIME. "[Michael's brother] Randy Jackson was tasked with checking out all of these places, and he worked with the family to make sure Michael will be protected all the time. That was a high priority."


At one point, members of the family actually debated whether to inter the deceased King of Pop in his Neverland estate. Indeed, his brother Jermaine told Larry King that Neverland would have been ideal. "I'm just concerned about security and being secure in a peaceful setting," he said. But Neverland was not popular with all the Jackson family members. There were too many negative associations with Michael's once beloved home: police raided the place in 2005 looking for evidence to be presented in his molestation trial. "That destroyed the magic for him, it really did," his nephew Taj Jackson tells TIME. "Neverland was never an option for me. When I heard it was being considered, I immediately called [Michael's mother Katherine]. She was thinking the same way as well. Michael felt that Neverland was tainted."


Forest Lawn offered a clean slate surrounded by a who's who of Old Hollywood. The 300-acre hillside sanctuary is the final resting place of Jimmy Stewart, Spencer Tracey, Sammy Davis Jr., Errol Flynn and George Burns and his wife Gracie Allen. Humphrey Bogart and "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford are yards away from each other in the same walled (and locked) garden. Around the grounds are chapels — replicas of famous European churches — such as the "Wee Kirk o' the Heather" (Ronald Reagan tied the knot with Jane Wyman there in 1940). In other locations there are replicas of Michelangelo's David and La Pieta. A massive stained-glass version of one of Jackson's favorite works of Renaissance art, Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, is the artistic highlight of the Great Mausoleum. (Jackson had a version of the painting at Neverland, with Christ replaced by himself and the disciples by the likes of Walt Disney, Elvis Presley, John F. Kennedy and Albert Einstein.)


The Great Mausoleum takes its architectural inspiration from the Campo Santo in Genoa, Italy, and features 11 terraces, each named for a flower and filled with its own set of luminaries. Jackson will lie in the Holly Terrace, sharing proximity with Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Carole Lombard. And Jackson will not be far from the comic Red Skelton, whom he once befriended. "Red was very fond of Michael and would no doubt find humor in the fact that they will be spending eternity together," says a Skelton friend.

Another neighbor will be the classic comedian from an even earlier era: W.C. Fields. "They have only the moon in common," says grandson Ronald Fields. "Michael Jackson did the moonwalk, and W.C. Fields loved moonshine. Besides that, I think he'd be just fine with it." Ronald points out that while some find the gothic setting inspiring, it can be a bit morose. "I don't think [W.C.] would have liked it in there," says Ronald, who has written three books about his grandfather. "He didn't like gloomy places. It can be scary there, for God's sake. You expect to hear organ music much of the time."


If the stained-glass lighting within the arched-ceiling architecture is not enough to put the fear of God into trespassers, the not-so-subtle security will keep them away. That has been a feature of the mausoleum long before its latest celebrity client. Family members and plot holders must pass through guards or security camera–manned doors in order to visit loved ones in the structure. Curious wandering is forbidden. Roger Sinclair, 77, a historian of cemeteries who has bought a plot for himself in the Great Mausoleum, was not made to feel welcome, even as a future occupant. Says Sinclair: "I was looking at Travis Banton, a costume designer located near W.C. Fields. And the guards came right up and stood there, two guys in suits. They walked me away, and I was escorted out." Explains Sinclair: "I'm a property owner, and I wasn't at my [exact] property. It's not a place to go wander around."

Sinclair remembers a time when the area was relatively open. Security guards recall an incident decades ago when a vandal-prankster removed a brass letter from one of the celebrity plaques. Since then, sections have been either locked off or carefully monitored. Sinclair adds, "There are cameras and sound devices."

Lisa Burks, a friend of Sinclair's and a self-described "grave hunter" (her website is called Adventures in Grave Hunting), says she was once escorted from the Great Mausoleum by security after leaving flowers at Jean Harlow's grave. "If the Jackson family wants privacy, they could not have picked a better place than this," says Burks. "This place is the cream of the crop for protecting celebrities."

http://www.time.com/time/...40,00.html
[Edited 9/3/09 10:16am]

Timmy84 said:

They will really air it? I doubt it.

Timmy84 said:

I went on the jacksons board and saw that posted and Larry king and Anderson cooper are talking about it tonight , I also heard the family is allowing a production crew in there some are thinking it's for the reality show.

babybugz said:

Jeez Louise... WTF?!

Timmy84 said:

co-