Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Life and Death in the Media Age

I experienced something new last night - sitting in a pub watching a televised funeral. I didn't set out to watch it in the pub - the trains home had all been cancelled due to the storms so we decided to wait it out in a nearby pub. The pub, where we've frequently watched football and cricket, was showing the memorial.

It was bizarre, but then the whole thing has been bizarre.


The memorial was, I suppose, a fitting tribute. The music was good, the rest I'm not so sure about. A celebration of his talent would have been good without the coffin being on stage.

It felt disrespectful somehow to be ordering a round of drinks while Brooke Shields was talking, although I did it anyway. In a hushed sombre tone.

Paul Gambaccini was commentating on the show and he made the most memorable comment on the star's death. Asked if in years to come, his legacy would be the music or the controversy, he replied that it would be the music "because anyone can own a llama". Having a pet llama wasn't the scandal that first comes to my mind, that is still in acceptable levels of eccentricity as far as I'm concerned.

2 comments:

M said...

A comment that stuck with me...A writer from MTV said regardless of what you thought of MJ, the world has a little less magic without him in it.

That feels like a true statement to me. The oddity and wonder of what would come next from him (good or bad) is now no more. And that does feel like a true loss for all of us.

cogidubnus said...

It sounds sick I know, but someone mentioned to me the similarity between Cool Running and the Jackson 4 carrying Michaels coffin... I suspect it says it all for all the wretched TV hype...