It takes a guy like Michael Jackson to make us realize that Todd Gremmels is practically normal.
Oh, and just try, any of you, to claim “Dirty Diana” wasn’t Jacko’s best song. Just try. Begin the sentence with “Hi, I’m the most wrong person in the world, but I think …”
This will be one of those surprising mass-cultural moments that many, if not most Americans will remember exactly where they were when they heard it. Boomers would use “Kennedy got shot” but for us, I prefer, Reagan got shot, Challenger Explodes, 9-11, and, if you’re Spanish, alst nights upset win of the USA Soccer Team over Espana. that sort of event.
And as Cronkite was important in the Kennedy announcement, I predict that twitter, facebook and, of all places, TMZ will get that recognition with this. New media, or online media anyway.
So let me trace how it happened for me to hammer home this point. As I mentioned I heard about it from @mistystarr via twitter I was just getting ready to leave my office. But the first place I went for verification was … twitter, I thought she was kidding and even (accidentally) tweeted just that. Sure enough, twitter had it and confirmation (for me) came from ASHTON KUTCHER who got it from … wait for it … TMZ. And they had everything right. Then I got in the car headed for home and NPR’s ATC is interviewing someone about MJJ’s career and they report that he’s in a COMA. Which came from the Los Angeles times, they didn’t have a person or source on the scene yet. (Which is fine, right, that’s how they operate, not being critical here, just observing).
I get home and check again on Twitter, and then TMZ, and then CNN, and various other sites, TMZ and the social media had it pretty much right, others had it wrong, they said it was a coma. So, let me be clear here, that means that not only has @aplusk exceeded @cnnbrk in followers, in this case, he actually had a breaking news story correct, a half hour or more ahead of them. In fact, the first old media journalist who confirmed the death (for me) was NBC’s Ann Curry, but … via Twitter. 15 minutes later the ABC world news tonight got that, too. Incidentally after that I tried MTV, and they were still reporting the COMA on their site. I checked MTV since MJJ had such an important role in their formation and development, but they were kinda old media on this one.
So … I am going to forward that this may be the first mass pop cultural event that “new media” especially twitter scooped old media of radio and tv and (obviously) print. I may not have noticed, but news is moving blindingly fast these days and since this was an important cultural figure for me and millions of others I wanted to know what I could right way. One thing noteworthy is that twitter, and obviously TMZ are good at reporting rumors, but it will be interesting to see how well they get the back story of why he died in this way and if there are any extenuating circumstances. I doubt, Gremmels is right about the auto erotic angle on this one, but old shoe leather journalists might be more likely to get investigate and dig that sort of thing up than the new media … we’ll see.
This is just some stuff I noticed.
—
Now to the man himself. Probably one of the most influential artists of all time. Yes, I do mean ALL time. Also important as a cross media promoter, a filmmaker, and I would say a racial pioneer, too. Think. How many white kids in the 80s, all over the world bought Thriller and had his posters on their walls, or wore the glove, etc. Also (anecdote here) when i was in China the students had dances every Friday night and they had a real simple PA and no real DJ, but they didn’t need one as they just played the Thriller cassette all the way through. This is central china in the early 90s, pretty far from never land.
Dirty Diana is an awesome song, and it could I suppose be his best song overall, if you factor in the moderately edgy content (by 80s radio standards), the musicality and the fact that he played it at Wimbledon for Princess Diana, Paul, maybe. However, As a many many many year party/wedding DJ I will tell you that the song that gets by far the most significant reaction where it counts (on the dance floor) is Billie Jean. My favorite MJJ song it will surprise probably no one, is Man in the Mirror. Obviously I like the cheesy message of personal accountability, but I also really like the bass part on it. And the crescendo and the choir. ABC is probably the second most popular of his songs, but not sure if that counts as it is Jackson 5 days.
You could do a whole two or three hour event that would appeal to a lot of people with only MJJ songs, with maybe a little Janet and Jackson 5 thrown in for good measure. That’s pretty amazing when you think about it.
The dangerous thing about using Twitter as a news source is that right now, rumors of Jeff Goldblum’s death are going crazy. But that’s completely false, and the source people are verifying this with comes from a fake celebrity news generator.
Now I see the trends and search functions on Twitter are disabled. Perhaps for this very reason?
Also Paul is the rightest person in the world regarding “Dirty Diana.” If what gets people dancing at weddings is an indicator of what makes a song great, “Macarena” and “The Chicken Dance” would be the best songs ever written.
Wildgoose the auto erotic thing was just an example of medibolic imbalance . Due to the recent Caridine incident (were I did not speak my gut) I had to write something about the blanket term Cardiac Arrest.
My gut on this one is that due to his skin-gender bending foray into chemically and physically altering himself he shortened his life span.
I’ve never been a Michael Jackson fan (nor a fan of most pop music) but there is an excellent cover of the Paul McCartney duet “The Girl is Mine” done by my favorite cover artist Richard Cheese. I think it’s on his “I Like Dick” album. Anyway, the other voice is Stephen Hawking. (though it’s most certainly a Speak n Spell synth and not actually Mr. Hawking).
This was in the Star Tribune this morning. A shirts vs blouses moment between Prince and Mike:
Jackson showed up backstage at a couple Prince shows in 1984. The two icons, whose “Thriller” and “Purple Rain” defined the 1980s, never did work together. Later that decade, when both were recording at the same Los Angeles studio, Prince invited Jackson to play ping-pong. Michael, a star since age 8 who had lived a sheltered life, didn’t know how.
“You want me to slam it?” Prince asked, according to engineer David Z, who was there. “Michael drops his paddle and holds his hands up in front of his face so the ball won’t hit him. Michael walks out with his bodyguard, and Prince starts strutting around like a rooster. ‘Did you see that? He played like Helen Keller.’
we didn’t want to see peter pan get old, if his comeback attempt had failed the paps would have torn him apart. he was in a tight spot. theories will fly about this whole thing being faked, even more then elvis’
The CIA killed MJ. I mean, they _have_ to erase an embarrassing cold war entertainment icon.
Wait, no, McCartney and his estate and family arranged for his death, wait, no, it was the mob, wait, no, the gestapo or like the illuminati or like the SS, umm. I’ve got it… aliens. Wasn’t he from outer space, anyway?
Paul, Elvis was the King of Rock-n-Roll, not the King of Rock. The King of Rock is Run from Run-DMC. There is none higher. Sucka MCs can call him sire.
Everyone seems to forget that the King of Pop was the King of Rock-n-Roll’s son-in-law. Obviously his death was faked.
The guy just imploded. Concerts as they are these days have 30 ft high def images of the performer. How could he not be distracted by the larger then life image of himself in his present state.
I’d would be tough to keep the mojo pumped, not to mention syncing the dance moves. All this heaped onto an ,although talented, very fragile ego.
i still remember reading the article a couple of years ago about MJ wanting to have a 50 foot robotic replica of himself roam around the desert outside Lost Wages…errm…Las Vegas.
Farrah Fawcett will have to wait for her E! retrospective, I suppose.
I wonder if his remains will be put up for sale.
King of Pop!!
A conflicting legacy that brought with it an amazing change to the music of the day.
Wow what a freak!!
peace
It takes a guy like Michael Jackson to make us realize that Todd Gremmels is practically normal.
Oh, and just try, any of you, to claim “Dirty Diana” wasn’t Jacko’s best song. Just try. Begin the sentence with “Hi, I’m the most wrong person in the world, but I think …”
You might want to amend the headline; it was reportedly cardiac arrest (which is different than heart attack).
It is so amended. An early version of a Brisban Times story used the phrase “heart attack.”
Dirty Diana is a great friggin’ song.
Cardiac arrest is such a blanket term and typically is the end result of some other metabolic disorder. Like lets just say erotic asphyxia.
Thanks Paul and you have not seen anything yet.
Peace
Todd Gremmels
NREMTP
Dirty Diana? Why? It’s a ripoff of Darling Nikki. Or is that why?
I heard about this from my wife via twitter.
This will be one of those surprising mass-cultural moments that many, if not most Americans will remember exactly where they were when they heard it. Boomers would use “Kennedy got shot” but for us, I prefer, Reagan got shot, Challenger Explodes, 9-11, and, if you’re Spanish, alst nights upset win of the USA Soccer Team over Espana. that sort of event.
And as Cronkite was important in the Kennedy announcement, I predict that twitter, facebook and, of all places, TMZ will get that recognition with this. New media, or online media anyway.
So let me trace how it happened for me to hammer home this point. As I mentioned I heard about it from @mistystarr via twitter I was just getting ready to leave my office. But the first place I went for verification was … twitter, I thought she was kidding and even (accidentally) tweeted just that. Sure enough, twitter had it and confirmation (for me) came from ASHTON KUTCHER who got it from … wait for it … TMZ. And they had everything right. Then I got in the car headed for home and NPR’s ATC is interviewing someone about MJJ’s career and they report that he’s in a COMA. Which came from the Los Angeles times, they didn’t have a person or source on the scene yet. (Which is fine, right, that’s how they operate, not being critical here, just observing).
I get home and check again on Twitter, and then TMZ, and then CNN, and various other sites, TMZ and the social media had it pretty much right, others had it wrong, they said it was a coma. So, let me be clear here, that means that not only has @aplusk exceeded @cnnbrk in followers, in this case, he actually had a breaking news story correct, a half hour or more ahead of them. In fact, the first old media journalist who confirmed the death (for me) was NBC’s Ann Curry, but … via Twitter. 15 minutes later the ABC world news tonight got that, too. Incidentally after that I tried MTV, and they were still reporting the COMA on their site. I checked MTV since MJJ had such an important role in their formation and development, but they were kinda old media on this one.
So … I am going to forward that this may be the first mass pop cultural event that “new media” especially twitter scooped old media of radio and tv and (obviously) print. I may not have noticed, but news is moving blindingly fast these days and since this was an important cultural figure for me and millions of others I wanted to know what I could right way. One thing noteworthy is that twitter, and obviously TMZ are good at reporting rumors, but it will be interesting to see how well they get the back story of why he died in this way and if there are any extenuating circumstances. I doubt, Gremmels is right about the auto erotic angle on this one, but old shoe leather journalists might be more likely to get investigate and dig that sort of thing up than the new media … we’ll see.
This is just some stuff I noticed.
—
Now to the man himself. Probably one of the most influential artists of all time. Yes, I do mean ALL time. Also important as a cross media promoter, a filmmaker, and I would say a racial pioneer, too. Think. How many white kids in the 80s, all over the world bought Thriller and had his posters on their walls, or wore the glove, etc. Also (anecdote here) when i was in China the students had dances every Friday night and they had a real simple PA and no real DJ, but they didn’t need one as they just played the Thriller cassette all the way through. This is central china in the early 90s, pretty far from never land.
Dirty Diana is an awesome song, and it could I suppose be his best song overall, if you factor in the moderately edgy content (by 80s radio standards), the musicality and the fact that he played it at Wimbledon for Princess Diana, Paul, maybe. However, As a many many many year party/wedding DJ I will tell you that the song that gets by far the most significant reaction where it counts (on the dance floor) is Billie Jean. My favorite MJJ song it will surprise probably no one, is Man in the Mirror. Obviously I like the cheesy message of personal accountability, but I also really like the bass part on it. And the crescendo and the choir. ABC is probably the second most popular of his songs, but not sure if that counts as it is Jackson 5 days.
You could do a whole two or three hour event that would appeal to a lot of people with only MJJ songs, with maybe a little Janet and Jackson 5 thrown in for good measure. That’s pretty amazing when you think about it.
Twitter as an actual news source? Wow. Perhaps I need to get out more.
The dangerous thing about using Twitter as a news source is that right now, rumors of Jeff Goldblum’s death are going crazy. But that’s completely false, and the source people are verifying this with comes from a fake celebrity news generator.
Now I see the trends and search functions on Twitter are disabled. Perhaps for this very reason?
I mean don’t get me wrong I love Twitter.
Also Paul is the rightest person in the world regarding “Dirty Diana.” If what gets people dancing at weddings is an indicator of what makes a song great, “Macarena” and “The Chicken Dance” would be the best songs ever written.
Wildgoose the auto erotic thing was just an example of medibolic imbalance . Due to the recent Caridine incident (were I did not speak my gut) I had to write something about the blanket term Cardiac Arrest.
My gut on this one is that due to his skin-gender bending foray into chemically and physically altering himself he shortened his life span.
Just a hunch!!!
Peace
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Hg-IRZk4D0
I’ve never been a Michael Jackson fan (nor a fan of most pop music) but there is an excellent cover of the Paul McCartney duet “The Girl is Mine” done by my favorite cover artist Richard Cheese. I think it’s on his “I Like Dick” album. Anyway, the other voice is Stephen Hawking. (though it’s most certainly a Speak n Spell synth and not actually Mr. Hawking).
This was in the Star Tribune this morning. A shirts vs blouses moment between Prince and Mike:
Jackson showed up backstage at a couple Prince shows in 1984. The two icons, whose “Thriller” and “Purple Rain” defined the 1980s, never did work together. Later that decade, when both were recording at the same Los Angeles studio, Prince invited Jackson to play ping-pong. Michael, a star since age 8 who had lived a sheltered life, didn’t know how.
“You want me to slam it?” Prince asked, according to engineer David Z, who was there. “Michael drops his paddle and holds his hands up in front of his face so the ball won’t hit him. Michael walks out with his bodyguard, and Prince starts strutting around like a rooster. ‘Did you see that? He played like Helen Keller.’
There is a prison in the Philippines that is mourning the passing of Michael Jackson to Neverland.
meant to put a link to this video,
we didn’t want to see peter pan get old, if his comeback attempt had failed the paps would have torn him apart. he was in a tight spot. theories will fly about this whole thing being faked, even more then elvis’
From Wikipedia:
gremmels said blanket.
just saw a guy downtown with the following scrawled on his tanktop
i killed michael
Is the title “King of Pop” something you take with you to the grave? I guess it is, since Elvis is still the “King of Rock.”
Is Prince the “Prince of Pop”?
Is Prince the “Prince of Pop”?
No. Prince is GOD.
The CIA killed MJ. I mean, they _have_ to erase an embarrassing cold war entertainment icon.
Wait, no, McCartney and his estate and family arranged for his death, wait, no, it was the mob, wait, no, the gestapo or like the illuminati or like the SS, umm. I’ve got it… aliens. Wasn’t he from outer space, anyway?
Paul, Elvis was the King of Rock-n-Roll, not the King of Rock. The King of Rock is Run from Run-DMC. There is none higher. Sucka MCs can call him sire.
Everyone seems to forget that the King of Pop was the King of Rock-n-Roll’s son-in-law. Obviously his death was faked.
I think just plain The King would do Barrett.
Peace
The guy just imploded. Concerts as they are these days have 30 ft high def images of the performer. How could he not be distracted by the larger then life image of himself in his present state.
I’d would be tough to keep the mojo pumped, not to mention syncing the dance moves. All this heaped onto an ,although talented, very fragile ego.
i still remember reading the article a couple of years ago about MJ wanting to have a 50 foot robotic replica of himself roam around the desert outside Lost Wages…errm…Las Vegas.
creepy.
readit here.