Well, I was completely sated. Michael's funeral was a tribute, a memorial and a bit of a circus all in one. Not working, I was able to plant myself in front of the TV and watch the 2 hour presentation of "Michael Jackson, This is Your Life". Well, the good part of  his life anyway. The gold casket, the pallbearer brothers, somber family and 17,000 complete strangers who won a lottery ticket to get in to see the show. It was brilliant marketing and I'm quite sure the family will be able to pay down his debts now that he's gone. 

The pictures at the service depicted just how famous,  talented and darling he really was.  That is, until his father told him his nose was too big. Then the plastic surgeons got a hold of him and what started out as a cute, poor black child from Gary, Indiana ended up a looking like a pretty, poor white woman from Los Angeles. And his family continues to proclaim ignorance of any drug problem? I'm just saying if I came home one day with so much as a tan (which is a dream of any pasty Irish gal), my 6 siblings would be conducting an intervention. 

The service had some touching moments. Brooke Shields did a nice tribute and seemed to be a real friend to Michael at one time in his life. I thought the musical numbers were all done in good taste and a sign of his great talent. I was a bit unclear why Magic Johnson played a part in the service. The fact that he still goes by the name of Magic and is married to a woman named Cookie is another blog entirely but, I just didn't understand his role. And he made what I thought was a racist joke about he and Michael eating fried chicken. Although, maybe if you are the race making the joke against your own race, it's not really considered racist. I'll have to research that. But,  just imagine the sounds in the Staples Center if Brooke told a similar story about the time she and Michael ate watermelon together. 

And, it wouldn't be an event without the Reverend Al Sharpton. He took the podium and preached about Michael's goodness and wonderful parenting. He raved about his generosity and kindness.  And he went on to talk about how he broke down the color barriers in pop music. I'm not sure I would have gone that far. It was the late '70s before Michael made his big splash and we had already seen many, many talented black musicians by then. Smokey Robinson, James Brown and Jackie Wilson to name a few. No, we hadn't quite seen anything like him before but I'm not sure that had anything to do with the color of his skin. Maybe Al was confused. Michael did the moon walk.  He didn't walk on the moon. There is a difference.

On my way home to watch the service, I walked passed the Ebony-Jet building on South Michigan Avenue.  The front window has a blown-up version of the Ebony Magazine where Michael did his last interview a few years ago. There was a make-shift memorial in front and watched a crying woman drop off a bunch of flowers.  It was touching I have to admit. But, now it's over and I need a new muse. I hope Diana Ross re-surfaces soon. 

Today's EiPod: "Ease on Down the Road",  Michael Jackson and Diana Ross