"Ben, the two of..."

Today, the world lost a couple of celebrities.... We knew Farrah and we knew Michael. One better than the other, but maybe not... We knew what we saw, what we read, what we heard...

We were somewhat prepared to say 'goodbye' to Farrah as her road has been a rough one. Red was your color. With Mr. Jackson, it was sudden and without fair warning. This guy, Michael, was an icon on many levels. Farrah was an American icon of sorts, but Mike was an icon that affected the globe, it seemed...

His song about Ben will always be my favorite...

My memory... In 4th grade, I (along with my friends B & H) stood up in front of our homeroom class and sang "Billie Jean." Someone brought the "Thriller" LP in and like most classrooms (I hope) in America, we had a record player on cue for spontaneous musical moments. For some reason, we thought we would be "those 3 kids" who would use our free time to show off our ridiculous singing voices to our classmates. We even snapped our fingers to the beat... All we needed was a street corner. We sang our hearts out for the class. I remember the temperature in my skin was boiling because it was really happening... A pop show in a classroom. In a way, it was awesome, but considering the PG-13 lyrical content, I'm wondering why we were able to get away with such nonsense. Of course, this was Michael Jackson we were talking about... The world was enamored by his charm. He was THAT big... It didn't matter... Billie Jean could have been about stealing milk for the janitor or killing butterflies and it would have been appropriate for that setting. Any setting... Why did Ms. Markos let us do this? To watch us wilt under the pressure of imitating Mr. Jackson? To watch us shine? To prepare us for something bigger than the 3 of us combined? Was she THAT cool or was she THAT crazy?

Wait a minute. Killing butterflies? Sorry about that... It just came to mind. Just making a point...

MJ was huge at one point and in many circles, he is still on top. This thing is just getting started... The King of Pop is gone. He's there with the King of Rock and Roll now.

Wow... I just don't know what to say...

I wonder how John and George will greet him... R.I.P.

All of a sudden, I feel a little older.

Protect the record player, people.

Out.

bsm*