Did you eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner yesterday? Talk to your spouse?

[theboss]

Don't you know that there are wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

That there are riots in Iran?

That we need universal healthcare?

How can you be so selfish and allow yourself to be distracted like that?

For shame!!!!!!!

[Catshrink]

1. Looking at the top of DUs front page, you'd think this was People

or ETs website. It's embarrassing.

Wait for it.... we're gonna get called heartless. We'll be accused of hating Michael, his music, etc. Really, all we want is some perspective. We don't need 150+ threads about MJ anymore than we needed half that many on Susan Boyle or any other celebrity. There is a place for those threads -- the Lounge or Entertainment forum.

[theboss]

3. The biggest pop icon of the last 40 years died. It's kind of a big deal.

My wife and I were signposting our lives to Michael Jackson last night. Considering neither of us were particularly big fans of his, he pops up in a lot of weird places.

I was part of a "concert" in third grade were the kids performed to nothing but Michael Jackson songs.

She wrote a paper in junior high on "Man in the Mirror."

I remember teaching myself to type but trying to remember the lyrics to "Beat It."

I remember my high school newspaper covering the video premiere of "Black or White."

I remember watching the Motown 25 special with my dad and just being blown away by his performance.

I remember getting the making of Thriller video and having friends come over to watch it.

[KansDem]

28. "Biggest pop icon?"

Sorry, I'll concede he was a very popular entertainer, but "biggest pop icon?" I doubt it...

[theboss]

31. Since 1970, who was bigger?

1/10th of the American population owned Thriller.

In 1984, he was bigger than Jesus, Reagan, and Davy Crockett.

[KansDem]

39. "1/10th?"

Really? Bigger than JC, RR, and DC? I don't know about that...

I didn't know anyone who owned Thriller, but then again, perhaps I wasn't one of the pop-commercial music-enlightened.

[theboss]

41. 25 million albums in America alone in the 83 and 84

The population was 250 million.

That means 1/10th of the population owned a copy of Thriller.

When you figure that most people don't live alone, you have to assume that 75 to 80 million people lived in a home with Thriller in 1984.

I made my parents get a VCR so I get get a videotape of the Making of the Thriller video.

And if you didn't know anyone who owned Thriller, you apparently lived in a coal mine.

[KansDem]

45. Couldn't find your stat of "25 million"

Wikipedia acknowledges that Thriller sold 100 million worldwide, but doesn't say specifically how many were sold in the US in 83 and 84. Are you saying that 25% of what was sold worldwide in the last 26 years was sold in the US during those two years?

And "no," I didn't live in a coal mine.

[theboss]

47. Billboard magazine would know best

Thriller stayed on the charts for over two years, spent 37 nonconsecutive weeks at number one, and became the best-selling album of all time; it went on to sell 25 million copies in the U.S. alone, and around another 20 million overseas. Naturally, Jackson won a slew of awards, including a record eight Grammys in one night, and snagged the largest endorsement deal ever when he became a spokesman for Pepsi (he would later be burned in an accident while filming a commercial). At the end of 1983, Jackson was again on top of the singles charts, this time as part of a second duet with McCartney, "Say Say Say." In 1984, Jackson rejoined his brothers one last time for the album Victory, whose supporting tour was one of the biggest (and priciest) of the year. The following year, he and Lionel Richie co-wrote the anthemic "We Are the World" for the all-star famine-relief effort USA for Africa; it became one of the fastest-selling singles ever.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/bio/index.jsp?JSESSIONID...

It's gone over 100 million worldwide since then. But Billboard only refers to sales at its initial release.

[theboss]

46. Oops

Delete.

[ProfessorGAC]

62. Nobody Who Admitted It To You

I've heard lots of people say they don't know anybody who had Thriller, but somehow it sold >25 million copies, in the United States.

It seems statistically improbable that very many people would actually be in that situation. So, perhaps you DID know people who had Thriller, but never admitted it to you.
GAC

[ellie]

32. Yes

I am 44 and in the 80s he was the biggest star ever. He was everywhere. No one has come close to his level of fame since. I can't speak for Elvis and the Beatles before this though because I wasn't alive.

[KansDem]

33. Well, if you want to use the 80s as a yardstick for "pop stardomhood"

...do so. But there are many more names with staying power who were and are working regularly before his pop stardomhood and since his retirement.

I have to chuckle, though. How many times on DU have I read assessments that the 80s was akin to a "pop music wasteland?" Disco, anyone?

[WinkyDink]

36. "Working" is hardly the criterion for "pop icon"! Name one you think would be covered more in the

world media upon death (Madonna, then who?).

NAME ONE.

[KansDem]

42. You got me there, Winky!

But I think the operative word in your response is "media," the same group of hucksters that brought us disco, "American Idol," and George W. Bush.

And there are many more working "icons" whose contributions will be with us much longer than those who simply made a splash for a few years, then went into semi-retirement only to titillate us every 5 or 10 years with a "big comeback tour of the century."

[theboss]

44. The media made thousands of people go to the hospital yesterday?

Look, you may think he was over-rated as an artist. But a pop singer has one job and one job only. Provide the soundtrack to a person's life.

If you were alive from 1971 to 1989, Michael Jackson was the soundtrack to your life.

[KansDem]

48. Sorry, I don't need Muzak for the "soundtrack to my life."

I spent my entire life studying music. From "Dead European White Guys" to American jazz; from Appalachia folk to Balinese gamelans; from Indian ragas to the marimba music of the Yucatan peninsula. I studied piano, saxophone, doublebass, and harp. I analyzed the 12-tone music of Schoenberg and his school. I studied jazz orchestration and improvisation with professionals in the studios of Los Angeles. I learned and analyzed counterpoint of the 16th-century Renaissance composers. I learned three-finger banjo style from a book by Pete Seger. I composed in the electronic labs of two major universities. I analyzed (or attempted to analyze) the music of Richard Wagner.

That rich history is my "soundtrack to my life" and not some commercially-produced pop music from the 1980s that I probably will hear only in an elevator. I'm so fucking sick and tired of being told what to listen to and what is musically important by those "experts" who's whole musical experience comes from listening to AM radio...

I played in jazz combos and big bands, wind ensembles and symphony orchestras, and new music ensembles. But there was always a "pop music elitist" there to tell me what I should be listening to: When I was listening to the music of Cannonball Adderley and Gerry Mulligan, I was "told" I should be listening to the Beatles; when I was listening to the music of Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius, I was "told" I should be listening to the music of The Rolling Stones. When I was listening to the music of Eric Dolphy and Anton Webern, I was "told" I should be listening to the music of Madonna... And so it goes. It never failed to fascinate me that those who claim to be "oh, so progressive," so "60s-like free," "independent," and even "revolutionary," in their music listening habits were actually very totalitarian and conservative in that they listened only to what they were told to listen to by whatever "wild and crazy" DJ who happened to be representing the commercial-music industry at any given moment.

And "yes" the media did make thousands of people go to the hospital yesterday, particularly the media of the commercial music industry. Without them, "pop icons" wouldn't exist. Just look at the number of folks who still parade through Graceland today...

You'll have to forgive me, I just couldn't develop the knack of worshiping fellow mortals.

[theboss]

50. Oh, God...your a jazz snob

I thought you were just a rock snob.

I should have been wearing a Hazmat suit.

[KansDem]

51. "Jazz snob?"

How the hell did you ever arrive at that assessment?

Didn't you read my post?

[theboss]

55. Because who the fuck knows who Gerry Sebelius is?

I figured he once played the Trombone in a dixieland band or something.

It's sounds like your house parties rock though.

[KansDem]

58. "Gerry Mulligan" and "Jean Sibelius"

Mulligan was a jazz saxophonist who helped usher in the "cool" sound founded by Miles Davis following WWII. Mulligan worked with other musicians, such as trumpeter Chet Baker and trombonist Bob Brookmeyer in creating the "west coast" sound of 1950s California. They performed first in San Francisco and then in Los Angeles, performing at such places as the Hague (sp?)

Jean Sibelius ((Kathleen) Sebeluis is the former Kansas governor and now Obama's Secretary of Health) was a Finish composer known for his symphonies and his tone-poems ("The Swan of Tuonela" and "Finlandia" are among his well-known works).

"Gerry Sibelius" would make for a most-intriguing blend of music. Sort of a post-Romantic/1950s, Finnish-California, nationalistic "cool" style of jazz...:D

Having said that, I'm off for a scotch...

[theboss]

43. What the hell does "working regularly" mean?

Lyle Lovett plays every night and is great. More people saw Michael Jackson on the Motown 25 special than have seen Lyle Lovett in total in his career.

The 80s were kind of awesome musically.

[KansDem]

53. Yes, but who had "staying power?"

You think maybe a person's work might be better assessed by what he or she does over a lifetime, and not as a "popular commercial flash of success" followed by "retirement" with an occasional "comeback tour."

[theboss]

57. Michale Jackson was making monster hits from 1970 to 1992

During 5 of those years, he was the biggest star in the history of this or any other galaxy.

His staying power was pretty damn good until he chopped his face off and started molesting people.

[KansDem]

59. "...chopped his face off and started molesting people"

Unfortunately, that's always tends to be the kibosh on a career...

[KansDem]

56. "The 80s were kind of awesome musically."

:rofl:

...but then, I'm just a "jazz snob."

[ellie]

52. God I loved disco!

After my husband gave me an iPod, I downloaded all these really great disco songs from iTunes. So, yeah, I loved disco. I loved punk too. I loved new wave. I can like a lot of things simultaneously.

[WinkyDink]

35. Your doubt is irrelevant. The world will speak.

[KansDem]

49. Just as it has spoken for the last, oh, shall we say, 30 years?

My doubt is entirely relevant...

[mwb970]

7. It's not just DU, Jackson will be *everywhere* for a week or more.

Remember when Anna Nicole Smith died? Every other news story was shut out for a week as it was Anna Nicole, Anna Nicole, Anna Nicole 24/7 from every news source. And that was for the death of a drug-addicted hooker with an illegitimate child, a woman who most people knew nothing about! This will be much worse.

Me, I'm planning on getting some yard work done. It will be good for me to take a break from the "news" media.

[108]

2. maybe you can allow people to be human?

[theboss]

5. No....we must ponder the sufferings of the world 24/7

That is the only way to live!!!

I am better than you! I think of nothing but the tax code and foreign policy all day long!!!!

[havocmom]

8. Serious?

[Catshrink]

12. You've got it wrong.

It's not about allowing human emotions or not feeling sad that a major music figure has died. We get that. But he was an entertainer. Believe it or not there are more important things in life than music and TV and movies. You'll understand this when you don't have a job and are struggling to put food on the table or need to see a doctor and can't afford to pay for the visit. I could go on.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't be sad and grieve. Not at all. Even though you never knew MJ, his music obviously touched you in some way.

There's grief and then there's grief. So grieve away but remember, he was a celebrity not a family member. Maybe when you do grieve for a family member you'll understand what I'm talking about.

[theboss]

16. I'm 35; obviously I've never known anyone who died

I can't put death in perspective. It's a mystery to me. Thank you for that valuable insight. It will serve me well someday.

I was planning on having my grandparents stuffed at a taxidermist but you have given me pause.

(Yea...just down to one grandparent actually. And the wife's mom is deceased. So, save the sermom).

[Catshrink]

22. I wasn't responding to your post...

I was responding to another one (I think #2).

[theboss]

25. They are all my posts

I feel every post in my soul. I am connected to all post through my chakra 5.

[Catshrink]

26. Well, okay then.

I hope all of you have a lovely day. :evilgrin:

[lazer47]

27. How is that new medication working for you????

[Kajsa]

23. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Strong Atheist]

54. Belated Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[Greyhound]

4. Continuing your rant from the other thread is against the rules.

But really, who gives a shit. We live in an "American Idol" nation, and that's how we like it, 'cause if we had to really look at who we are and what we do and the price others pay for us, we'd die of shame.

[theboss]

6. I am better than you too!!!!

I woke up this morning and re-wrote 455 pages of environmental regulations. Only I can save the mountains. I receive nourishment through an IV so I don't have to waste time with food!

I am better than everyone!! I am deep!! I am important!!! I have not experienced pleasure since 1993!!!

I am better than everyone!!!

[Greyhound]

9. You make my point, no more kicks for you. n/t

[havocmom]

11. boss, get back on your cross

and take the flying monkeys with you ;)

[ChickenHawk]

64. LOL

Okay, it's not very often that I laugh out loud at a post, but the part about "I receive nourishment through an IV so I don't have to waste time with food!" was pretty damn good.

I admit I'm also a little tired of the frenzy over his death, but he was admittedly one of the biggest pop icons in our time (I'm 40) and he put out some damn good music (along with some crap, but what entertainer hasn't). I also agree that he was definitely part of the soundtrack of our lives. I remember watching the Thriller video again and again when in high school. It was, and still is, a great piece of cinema (watch the moviephiles come running out of the woodwork after that one!).

Treat each other well folks, we're all we've got.


Mark

[sweettater]

19. You are so correct

in your assessment. The shame factor is right on. But only a handful would actually feel the shame. I am one of the few that think this MJ hype is way over the top. He may have contributed to the music industry but he did not lead a stellar life. In fact quite the opposite. As far as I am concerned he had many problems and I for one will not celebrate his life and refuse to listen to the media gloating over him 24/7. Just my 2 cents.

[YOY]

10. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.

We also discussed MJ and Farrah at the table.

We multitask.

[theboss]

14. How dare you?

Don't you know that other kids are dying in Japan?

(Wait....was it Weird Al or Michael Jackson who died?)

In all seriousness, what is the more humorless website: DU or the Shoah Foundation Website?

[YOY]

21. Oh we've got humor.

It's been better since most of the Political Correctness police have either stood down or got TSed. Sometimes I'm a bit dry personally...sometimes chain of though.

[scheming daemons]

13. I talked to my spouse ABOUT those things...

...and eating is a necessity.


Lamenting the passing of a child predator is not.

[theboss]

17. There are other ways to consume nutrients!

You could wear a patch.

We must evolve beyond basic human needs.

[Odin2005]

15. All all us volunteers are evil patsies too, don't ya know?

We shouldn't be volunteering until we overthrow the government and set up a Marxist utopia according to some posters. :eyes:

The way some people let their ideological beliefs come before reality is sad.

[theboss]

20. How dare you coach a youth soccer team??!?!?

You are a tool of the oppressor.

I am better than you!!

[Odin2005]

29. More like volunteer at a rape and abuse crisis center.

Yes, some posters were shitting on me for doing that, it really pissed me off.

[theboss]

30. Wait...really?

Can you point me in the direction where that happened? Because that sounds like an interesting thread.

[Odin2005]

63. Here ya go:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5926986

[aikoaiko]

18. I see what you did there.

[theboss]

24. Apparently, it was a bit of a mystery

Like I said, you post a tongue in cheek thread here and heads explode. Not so much with the sense of humor here.

[WinkyDink]

34. Hee! But if you knew my spouse, you'd know that those ARE what he'd talk about, at all meals!

[LaydeeBug]

37. Minor distractions are NOT the bane of the bigger picture! Healthcare is a Marathon, not a Sprint.

We are capable of multi tasking.

[WI_DEM]

38. because this is a message board it will not change the world if we don't discuss the wars or bash

Obama for a day or two.

[Cid_B]

40. What if I ate breakfast in Afghanistan today?

Which category should I jump into?

[Fire1]

60. I can multi-task, thankyou very much. I think we're all

talked to death over this same shit day after day after day with the same ole rhetoric online, on the tube and in the papers. It's good to divert once and awhile.

[rucky]

61. Sorry, boss. It'll never happen again.