To the original Smooth Criminal, may his music always be the best.

hugs Lone Writer what a great tribute =).

joins the hug nicely put =)

You’ve made a great tribute to Michael Jackson : )

hugs the group

Great and touching tribute! He will be missed!

Michael Jackson the Truth, great post my brotha. He will be sorely missed. Pops is dusting off his old MJ vinyl.

That is a nice tribute, Lone. He was an inspiration to a lot of people.

While surprised and shocked, I’m not saddened. I grew up on MJ, being 10 at the time of "Thriller"’s release (still the coolest video EVAR).

I guess I just don’t understand the outpouring of sadness when a celeb dies, while the guys who are getting blown up in Afghanistan don’t get a second thought.

I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’.

P.S. Don’t think I’m talking trash about MJ here… the man was a musical genius. I think he could see music. This is more a comment on society’s infatuation with celebrity.

People were walking around my office in a state of catatonia yesterday, asking “How could this happen?”—and while I understand how some people make deep connections with music and musicians, I don’t quite understand the outright shock.

This was not a universal reaction, so I don’t agree with the “we all” at the beginning of this story. No shock myself, no sympathy for my co-workers.

Honestly, one of my first thoughts was: I wonder if Ed McMahon’s and Farrah Fawcett’s families thought: “Well, there goes our mourning.”

To say nothing of Neda Soltani. Or others like her.

Sorry to judge so harshly, I’m just not feeling this one at all, as a story or as a tribute.

I was four during the Motown 25 debut of solo Michael Jackson. My Dad woke me up and made me watch it with him. It’s my earliest memory and one of my fondest.

As a child you don’t have rational thoughts, you attach wildly to characters. My pantheon growing up was BA Baracus, Micheal Knight, Hulk Hogan, Optimus Prime, and above all Michael Jackson.

As an adult I can separate myself and say he’s just a celebrity. But the sudden death of someone who defined my world for the first decade of my life is still a heartbreak.

This is a nice tribute, Lone Writer. Heartfelt and concise.

And jesteram. Lighten the F up. People are allowed to have their own feelings, they can be hurt by the death of people they attach too.

You rating this kid’s tribute a 1 out of 5 and saying you don’t feel it? That is a cheap scumbag move. You should feel ashamed.

@Jesteram
Michael Jackson was not an old person, most people are shocked when someone dies suddenly. The man was a legend. And you telling me that you don’t feel anything at all doesn’t make much sense. Confusion is a feeling, so you did feel something. And yes, the death of Michael Jackson did cause a universal reaction, just watch the news. Even my parents were stunned.
That man was my Musical Hero and I’m sorry that you feel that way about this.
I’m going to miss him.

Hey jesteram, thanks for overshadowing my comments, you big jerk. ;)

Your comment wasn’t overshadowed Rob. It just made more sense.
And of course I think about the soldiers, all the time. Trust me, they aren’t forgotten.

I don’t want to put words in Jesteram’s mouth, but I’m going to anyway.

I also feel the edge of contempt when people fawn over dead celebrities.

Their presence and by extension, their deaths affect people in very real ways nonetheless because of our attachment to whatever they represent for us.

It’s easy to hoist someone else (like Neda) up in comparison to a celebrity such as Michael, but remember that the families of other dead revolutionaries often see such martyrs in the same light that Jester thought about the McMahon’s and the Fawcett’s.

We didn’t know any of them.

Doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.

Jape S. Prophet

I really don’t appreciate that Apocalypse.

Jokes are kind of inapropriate at this point Apocalypse.

That was a pretty funny joke though, I gotta give the man some props for that

Yeah I like Michael Jackson, but the man’s time of fame had passed, and he was getting old. Rockstar old, at least, which is a lot younger than most people getting old. Jesteram is totally justified in disagreeing with your tribute, and I tend to disagree with it a bit too, although for different reasons.

Regardless, this ain’t a story and it ain’t a work of fiction, so it doesn’t really belong here regardless, especially not as some sort of featured story. We have news sites for that.

Congrats on getting featured LW!!!

Just like everyone, I’m fucking confused. But i have a theory, so here it is:

MICHAEL JACKSON ISN’T DEAD.

He had sold out his tour in Europe or whatever (I’m just guessing when i say Europe) and his “death” came at the most inconvenient time possible. It was revealed that a stranger called from Jackson’s house saying that Michael wasn’t breathing. That person was an obvious accomplice.

Michael told the doctors, the accomplice, his family that he wasn’t really dead and faked it all. He was taken away on a private jet and had the doctors tell the media 2 hours later that Michael Jackson was dead.

BUT HE WASN’T.

By the time the news got out, MJ was far away from America, on a secret island or some basement in Germany.

I know this sounds really exaggerated and i am doing that a little. But i honestly think Michael Jackson is alive.

Anyways, good tribute to the “dead” celebrity, Lone Writer. He was the king of pop. *

I probably should have made that comment a sequel. oops. *

Still is guys, he still is.

I agree with Quetzi.

In that, while it very well may be a well written piece, it’s place is not on this website, much less the featured story section.

Cool tribute & couldn’t have been said better!

@ N555chap & X-Ninja
this is going to be like elvis all over again. sightings, impersonators, the works.
and to lonewriter, the fist thing i thought of when i got on the computer to see if this was real (ficly is my home page) was you. i don’t know if that’s creepy or not…
ANYWAY
great tribute to a great icon! unfortunatly, I only lived through his downfall. oh, how i wish I was born in the 70’s.

unfortunately*
sorry, i have grammar problems.

@ Mr. Fish
I really do think Michael Jackson isn’t dead. But you all think I’m crazy.
All of you…..
I also wish i lived in the 70’s. I only knew Jackson as an accused celebrity. According to my parents, he was awesome. *

I don’t think you’re crazy. Hahahahahahahaha hypocrisy. Evil laugh

Wow, I didn’t realize Thriller was the top-selling album of all time so I went to check out the claim. I thought Back in Black was #1. Turns out, AC/DC takes a back seat to our friend Mr. Jackson, whose album more than doubled the sales of its competition for the throne. Seriously. 109 million sold versus 45 million. That’s incredible.

One of the local radio stations this morning was playing a MJ tribute marathon. It was great to hear all the hits together. Michael caught a lot of flak (and rightly so) toward the end of his life, but I choose to remember him at his most glorious. Like Elvis, we mentally block the fat, coked-up, sequin-jumpsuited version in favor of the King we all fell in love with. That’s the beauty of celebrity; you’re memorialized at your absolute peak and nobody remembers your flaws decades later.

I’ll also add that I’m intrigued by the conspiracy theory. It’s absolutely ridiculous and completely pointless, but it could still be fun to speculate about. WAKE UP AMERICA! ;-)

Lone Writer, I meant no offense with my comment or rating. That may sound like a backhanded whatever, but I wanted to make that clear. I was just posting my opinion. It doesn’t mean I don’t like you or other things you’ve written… I just had a strong reaction to how people were handling MJ’s death in general and your piece in particular. Please, keep writing, and feel free to listen to me or ignore me or anyone else, as I’m sure you’re already prepared to do.

At the very least, I have to admit that your work gets people talking! You’ve done a lot to spark conversations on this site. Keep it up.

How does this belong on a short story website?

And why is everyone here so nice?

What kind of question is that, Damon?
We like being nice.

Perhaps he is referring to the fact that it’s basically a blog post.

it is a very sad day whenever a worthless CHILD MOLESTOR is mourned. What is wrong with you people. There is a REASON that he paid off the one kid to NOT SAY ANYTHING! This is beyond rediculous. Micheal Jackson was a child molestor and his music sucked. His only good song was “Thriller”. There is no horror in his death only joy. So stop being so emo about it and move on. THERE IS ONE LESS CHILD MOLESTOR OUT THERE!

Fuck Michael Jackson. Fuck the spectacle of his death and pedophilia.

I really resent the opening lines to this. It feels like a personal attack when you generalize like that.

Michael Jackson Is amazing.
I still can’t believe he’s actually gone!
He was such an amazing man and he didn’t do anything wrong, he wanted a better world! R.I.P :(