Starting at 5 p.m. yesterday, I won't be in the office for 10 days. I'm not supposed to be working during this time, and someone else will be handling C-Notes during my absence.
I left the office at 5 and headed to a screening of the movie Public Enemies (you can read the review in next week's Scene). On the way there, I received a call from someone who told me that gossip website TMZ claimed Michael Jackson had died. TMZ is a lot of things (crass, crappy and blatantly exploitative of celebrities' rights), but if they said Michael Jackson was dead, Michael Jackson was dead.
But I'm not going to write about Michael Jackson.
You've already read enough about this. As my Twitter followers know, I caught up on 18 hours' worth of Google Reader items this morning, chronicling the whole thing in reverse. Needless to say, it was totally bizarre.
But I'm not going to write about Michael Jackson.
If I were to write about him, I'd tell you that the Jackson 5's Greatest Hits was the first album I ever owned, when I was six years old. I'd tell you that "I Want You Back" is still my favorite song of all time. And I'd tell you that when MTV started playing "Billie Jean" in 1983, it was a pivotal moment in my music-obsessed life.
But I'm not going to write about Michael Jackson. —Michael Gallucci
