Ok. Yes, I said it.

And to anyone who deeply and truly misses him, I'm sorry. I tried to hold my piece but after innumerable TV spots, news pieces and THREE SEPARATE DAILY DEVIATIONS in memory of him I just couldn't take anymore.

Folks, I'm older than many on deviantART. I pretty sure I'm older than most of my watchers (i.e. anyone reading this). I lived through almost the entire Michael Jackson era. I watched the Jackson 5ive cartoon show. [link]) I remember when Moonwalker was in theaters. I WAS THERE!

And I gotta tell ya... personally. I was never that impressed.

Sure he was a great performer. But his music was always pretty bland pop to me. At the time, the best thing I could say about his music was he gave Weird Al Yankovic some of his best material. The only song of his that I ever enjoyed listening to was "Man in the Mirror."

The most positive emotion I can summon up for Michael jackson is pity. He's the poster child of how early success can ruin a person. Way before Brittany burned out or Lindsay Lohan crumbled, he showed what happens when someone has too much money and no grounding influences. He was pretty much ALWAYS a freak. Even before the bad surgeries and pedophile rumors, there were the pet chimps and boa constrictors. The rumor that he slept in an oxygen tank was one of the most out there and it was a rumor that he started himself!

There is only one Michael Jackson related memory from my childhood that remains clear in my head. I've held onto it because it has proven prescient. It was the mid 80's. Michael Jackson was at the top of his game and Madonna had just released "Material Girl." I don't know what made me say it, but I turned to a friend of mine and said "You know what's scary? We're going to have to watch Madonna and Michael Jackson get old!" This wasn't a child's horror of the mysteries of aging. This was a realization that these people would not gracefully mature into elder figures with dignity. To a greater or lesser extent, I have been proven right.

And now that he's dead, we have to suffer through several days of necrophiliac media frenzy as every aspect of his personality, good and bad, is held up to the spotlight to glitter or ooze one more time. At least I can take comfort that this is the last spasm of publicity for this attention-addicted wretch.