MICHAEL JACKSON : 1958-2009

My cousin bob texted me around 9am today. I was deep in sleep having slept around 6.30am already. Bob doesn't text me alot nor do i text him. I probably havent sent my cousin a message more than 5 times this year, not neccessarily because i don't have anything to say to him but simply because i don't really text people. even my own mother would wail about how could i not text them back home for weeks, sometimes months. how would they ever know if im already a rotting corpse in my room here in cebu, she'd cpmplain. What a lonely corpse i must be if that happens. Simply put, i always say, im not really a text fan.

I was sleeping when that Mario Brothers ringtone sounded and thought the beep was my alarm. I grappled from my bed to get hold of my phone a the chair where i left it a few hours back and was disappointed that it was just a message and not my alarm that woke me up from such a dreamy state. i read the message and thought it was odd that my cousin would send me one. The message my cousin sent was "Mike patay na si Michael Jackson". I thought it was a joke or a cruel prank. Half-awake, i scrolled down ten times and hoped the screen would move and would flash something like "u got punked" with Ashton Kutcher wearing a devilish smile. Well, there wasnt any of that page so i replied, "That's sad".

Arriving at the office, the buzz was about Michael Jackson. Suddenly, everyone is a fan. Everybody claims to know his songs. And everyone else seem to know the moonwalk. I grabbed my chair and took my calls of the day.

I am a fan of Michael Jackson's music. Not so much the uber fanatic type, but i used to listen to his music back in the 90's when i discovered his Thriller album (which was released in the 80's) and when i was introduced to his moonwalk and crazy dance moves via a local TV station's almost daily airplay of his Bad Tour. His concerts were like prayer rallies, I thought back then. People collapsing and bursting into tears when he goes out of the stage. It was like the people were looking at the face of God and chanting songs like it's gonna save them. It always seemed to me like fanaticism gone way beyond but hey, i liked him anyway and the concerts were so...Michael Jackson. Until now, after watching numerous concerts on dvd, nothing still beats the showmanship of the gloved one . I remember I even bought his HIStory album- a compilation of his well-loved hits on cassette (CDs were unheard of back then).

The King of Pop is dead and BBC says the internet suffered a great deal of lag when news broke out about his demise. I am just glad that in this lifetime I lived to witness a true legend. We never got to live the days of the Beatles or Elvis but we were witness to the complex life and music of MJ.

Michael Jackson. May you rest in peace. 1958-2009