UPDATE: City To Remove 14 Blocks Of Bike Lanes On Bedford Ave.
Leftover Metrocard Change Infuriates Some
Hamster Rides The 4 Train
Bouncer Beatdown at Jay-Z's 40/40 Club
2nd Avenue Subway Cooling System Will "Blight" UES
Yesterday, millions of people watched the Michael Jackson memorial—whether at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, at screenings around the country (including a few in NYC), or online. One woman in Times Square told the Post, "It's such a sad day, but it's nice to be with people who feel like I do," while another said, "This is like someone in my family has died. I've just been a wreck all week. I can't stop shaking." And the Reverend Al Sharpton delivered strong words at the memorial in L.A., telling Jackson's children, "There weren't nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with but he dealt with it," which brought Sharpton a standing ovation.
Sharpton also conjured Jackson's cultural significance, "It was Michael Jackson that brought blacks and whites and Asians and Latinos together. It was Michael Jackson that made us sing ‘we are the world.'...It was that comfort level that kids from Japan and Ghana and France and Iowa and Pennsylvania got comfortable enough with each other so later it wasn't strange to us to watch Oprah on television. Those young kids grew up from being teenage comfortable fans of Michael to being 40 years old and being comfortable to vote for a person of color to be the president of the United States of America." Here's video:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Of course, the most-mentioned moment was when Jackson's daughter, Paris Katherine Jackson, tearfully spoke at the end of the tribute to say how much she loved her father (video after the jump). The Daily News' Michael Daly was moved, "After a week of spectacle, this courageous little girl had presented us with a moment of immaculate truth." However, the Post's Andrea Peyser writes, "At the end, Michael's daughter, Paris Michael Katherine, cried, unveiled, 'I just wanted to say I love him so much!' It was too terrible for words. The freak show has casualties."
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Nothing strange? I understand that he's dead and people tend not to speak ill of the dead, but c'mon. There were a lot of strange things about Jackson. Even his most hardcore fans can admit to that.
Yeah, the funeral for starters. Here we all are on a stage at the Staples center,looking out over the big gold casket, a stadium full of strangers and an elephant parade. Nope, nothing weird going on here.
clarice, you should research before trying to write something you think is ironic- the elephants were for the ringling bros circus whose shows started wednesday... and this wasn't a funeral, it was a memorial intended for his fans. It wasn't necessarily weird, but unique, as he was an individual who lived a very different life in the public eye.
Thank you! I was there. I was one of the lucky few who received 2 tickets. There was NOTHING strange about the memorial...I actually expected something more eccentric but it was just perfect. It was excellent...It was very emotional for me...Most of these people on here don't know what they're talking about...
enough.
Al Sharpton, the authority on what is and is not strange...
That's a powerful photo with the remaining Jackson brothers huddled - however who's the defiant looking one with his legs crossed...?
Maybe it's LaToya. I always wondered about her.
That is Randy Jackson. Tito is next to him, then Marlon, Jackie and Jermaine.
Why are they all wearing shades? Are they trying to be Koo at their brother's service?
yeah right, its the other 99% of the world that's "strange."Wanna buy a bridge?
What an awful use of English if those were Sharpton's words. Is proper command of language such a bad thing...?
"There weren't nothing strange about your daddy."
as if having to state that wasn't evidence enough.
Yes, and your daddy was not a freak and did not appreciate the company of little boys in his bedroom...
Somebody get those poor kids away from those blood sucking vampires.
Come on, there is no way that little white girl has any blood relation to Jackson! This to me speaks volumes about her "daddy's" strangeness.
She looks bi-racial.
Al Sharpton is an opportunist in sickness and in health, for richer of for pooper, in the 70's as in the new millennium.
His speech was more victimizing than remembering. He has no soul.
If I ever see him I will pee on him.
"he has no soul", "I will pee on him", what a buffoon, damn not only are you stupid but you aren't funny. stop polluting this site with you lame idiotic remarks.
Oh the irony...
You and I don't live the same lifestyle but I don't comment daily about body parts and peeing on people everyday as this buffoon does here. It is beyond juvenile now.
You've always been my biggest flan.
I am no fan of yours, I think it is sad how you destroy this whole site with your tasteless lame remarks. It is obvious that you are racist and ignorant. You defended Woody Allen on this site and yet you slander Jackson because he is black. Leave the man alone now, he is dead. Let his fans and loved ones remember him as they want to remember him. stop spreading your misery and ignorance around. I will now return to ignoring you. deal with it.
Should have put you in custardy.
Let's explore your groundbreaking reply.
'You defended Woody Allen'
Yes, and he won the case because he was right.
'you slander Jackson'
No idea what your intentions here are. Where did I do this?
'because he is black'
Where is this? What, huh?
Now STFU you short-bus prick.
I preferred it when MJ was an alive pedo so we didn't have to hear about him every fucking day.
Nice double negative
that first picture looks like a gang of ringwraiths all coming to steal the soul of that innocent little girl. freaky.
It calllsssss to usssssss!!!!!
I found the memorial beautiful yesterday, hearing people remember MJ for his warmth, kindness and talent.
Then I come here today, and read people's negative and hateful comments and realize that MJ definitely went to a much better place.
There seems to be a lot of people on here who are filled with such anger and hostility at the world. Some of you should listen to his music a little more.
Really listen.
peace
Does that 'better place' he went to come with 77 virgin little boys?
poking fun on a comment board does not equate with anger and hostility in the real world. in the real world it is defined as being "lazy at work."
p.s. there is no better place.
"p.s. there is no better place."
Prove it!
well, if it was not self-evident to you already, here is a good place for you to start:
http://godisimaginary.com/
have fun out there.
well, if it was not self-evident to you already, here is a good place for you to start:
http://godisimaginary.com/
have fun out there.
Though Sharpton's thoughts might be in the right place, very little of what he says makes any degree of sense.
People from Ghana and Iowa watch Oprah together because of Michael Jackson? What?
Why are his kids so white? Did he bleach them too?
I believe the actual quote was, "Nothin' strange about yo daddy, but you're a Honkey-ass Honkey McHonkerton. Now get off my stage."
Isn't sad that the comments on the gothamist are starting to reach youtube-esque levels when it comes to discourse.
This place needs a comment audition system like gawker has.
As for MJ, he had problems. There is no denying that. Don't we all have issues?
RIP
Cruel, mean and/or nasty remarks don't make you cool or funny but pathetic and perverse.
Thanks, Captain Carebear.
Thanks, Captain Carebear.
I've met many mixed race kids who look like they are white. Perhaps because of MJ's vitiligo, his gene was recessive. Whether or not you were a fan of Jackson's, leave the kids out of it.
I'm not only saying Jackson's daughter looks too white to be his biological child, I'm also suggesting she looks absolutely nothing like him, before and after his multiple plastic surgeries. But hey, who knows.
Has Reverend Al settled his tax issues yet?
Policing morality on the internets is lamer than trolling because it assumes that trolls actually care about what they write while simultaneously proving that you care what they write.
al sharpton is weird
Do some of you cynical pedantic trolls ever ponder that perhaps the world at large sees YOU as strange? Just food for thought..
Some might say that people commenting anonymously on a blog is strange.
is it wrong of me to ask why Janet looks so militant?
and I can see some "blackness" in Paris. just like I can see it in Derek jeter or mariah carey.
the races will be mixing and it already has.
The First Family Of Cheese.
My perusal of comments on posts always begins and ends with NannyState. Pure gold 95% of the time.
They were all musicians. How come none of them knew how to use a mic stand??
By the way. The speech for me was really weird. It seemed scripted and forced. I dont know... i wasnt that touched. Maybe it was only me..
Last night the Yankees slaughtered the Twins. So, I flipped the channel to see what else was on. You would be amazed how many were cable channels were just about MJ and how few weren't.
What a disgusting display of venom, spite and hate among the commenters here. If you were not a fan, why are you spending your time making hateful comments?
Michael Jackson donated over $300 million to charity, raised awareness of money worthy causes, helped countless individuals, and made millions of people happy with his musical genius.
Can you not find one positive thing to say? You people must be so miserable if your only enjoyment is dragging someone down with your hateful remarks on the day of a memorial service.
I think he fingered the boys but probably little else. There were few if any real identifying characteristics of rape. I'm not aware that rape kits were ever used in any of the alleged cases of child molestation. And children can be difficult or unreliable witnesses. That said, Michael Jackson likely fingered one or more of the little boys that shared beds with him over the years.
Only the kids he took into his secret room hidden in a trap door in his closet will ever truly know if he was a kiddie fiddler. For the rest of us, he was just a thriller.
The "secret room" was revealed on CNN to be...a cedar-lined extension to the walk-in closet.
Aside form MJ persona....this funeral was a bit obscene,specially the suffering kid.
But then celebrity culture reeks of obscenity from any angle.