The Midnight Hour is close at hand as I write this, not since 1997 can I think of a triumvirate of celebrities passing away in such a short span as Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. In 1997 we had Gianni Versace, the King of Fashion, Diana the Princess of Wales, and the beloved and blessed Mother Theresa. Diana’s death was the most shocking of all at my age as I was too young to know or care about John Lennon’s death. I remember where I was when I heard about Diana. I had flown home for a visit and my mother picked me up and told me Diana had been in a car accident. My youthful arrogance and belief in being invincible made me confident she’d be fine. I couldn’t have been more wrong. We waited up until 4.a.m or so when it was confirmed that Diana, the Princess of Wales was dead. It took weeks for it to sink in and I don’t think it became real until I moved to London and saw the massive amounts of flowers that people left at her residence.

Today, I have a similar sense of disbelief with the news that we lost a “PYT,” Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson today not to mention having lost Ed McMahon earlier this week. No more, “Here’s Johnny,” “I’m Charlie and they work for me,” and moon walking. It feels like the death of my childhood. I also feel sorry for Ed and Farrah, especially Farrah as I feel like her death is eclipsed by MJ’s.

Growing up, I wanted to be an Angel. Granted as a brunette, I saw myself more as a Jacqueline Smith type Angel than Farrah, but I loved them all! As for Ed, I truly believed as a child that I would be on the Tonight Show and meet Ed one day (hey a girl can dream). And as for MJ, I was in love with him when I was in the second grade. I wanted to marry him. I loved him so much and in only the way that a young girl can that it hurt. I didn’t quite get the whole 20 plus years age difference. I was totally jealous of the fact that my best-friend at the time had the MJ purse with his picture from the Thriller album on it and I only had a school folder with the same picture on it. I think it was then when I first learned to covet something someone else had that I wanted. So, in addition, to my first violation of one of the Commandments, I also ruined a pair of parachute pants by trying to imitate a dance move of MJ’s. Not only was my MJ move poorly executed and a laughing stock to my living room audience, but I ruined the coolest pair of parachute pants ever to be worn in my 4th grade class and I caught the wrath of my mom.

Although my affection for MJ has gone the way of Tom Cruise, which is to say I loved him until he started to get weird, he will be missed. From what I’ve noticed everyone is yada-yada-ing over the bad, but you’ve got to take the good with the bad. OMG did I just subconsciously pseudo-plagiarize the Facts of Life theme song? Um, a little bit. I will say this, my dad saw the warning signs even as early as Thriller and he’d remark that there was something off about MJ. The all knowing seven year old me told my dad he didn’t understand, which is a mantra I would repeat for the next 15 or so years, including the “Menudo years” when I bought a teddy bear with the intent of sending it to one of the Menudo members (so embarrassing). God only knows which one, but it definitely wasn’t Ricky Martin because I thought he was too wimpy looking back then (the RM obsession would have to wait until law school when Ricky became unbelievably hot and ambiguously gay). The teddy bear never got sent as clearer heads prevailed (translation my dad told me that they had so many girls sending them teddy bears that it was stupid for me to do it and after throwing a minor temper tantrum, I had to admit to myself that he was right. Plus he refused to pay for postage and at that age I was on what one might call a fixed income). Anyway, it is only after years of dad being right that I now use him as my oracle. Dad has never been wrong about any of the guys I’ve brought home for him to meet. He can sense someone’s freak flag before they’ve ever even bought it. I should rent dad out to my friends to detect if they’re dating a lemon.

Back to MJ, I was at drinks with someone tonight and I had learned that MJ had passed away earlier in the day. I think I learned earlier than most, so I wasn’t surprised when CNN finally broke the story. When the news flashed on the TV screen, you could hear people murmuring and then the bar went silent for a moment until the DJ played Billy Jean. I thought it wasn’t the right MJ song for the occasion. I thought Thriller might’ve been more apropos, but a nice gesture nonetheless. Part of me feels like I should run up to the Apollo Theater and join in the tribute to him, but instead I will choose to remember him privately. Oddly, I randomly did the moonwalk two days ago when I was at the bowling alley as a celebration of picking up a spare, which to me signifies how eternal MJ’s influence was.

Tags: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Mother Theresa, Princess Diana, Ve, Versace

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 11:07 pm and is filed under I heart Celebs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.