FAREWELL TO MJ: An LA Showment in Time

So much has been made in the media about the untimely death of Michael Jackson that I almost didn't post this. However, I heard a local radio show discussing MJ's death and one of the announcers said something that I agreed with - which is that until he died, we all didn't realize how much we really did like and appreciate his music and talent - perhaps even more than we ever knew.

So - yeah, (prepared to call in sick to work) I tried to get a ticket to the big memorial - but no luck. But what was being advertised was the special Michael Jackson exhibit at the brand new Grammy Museum at the Nokia Plaza across the street from the site of the memorial - the Staples Center - in downtown LA. Since there was already a crowd down there lined up to sign the wall of remembrance, I took the subway to avoid a parking hassle and paid my $10 entrance to the see the exhibit only to find out that AEG (the promoters for what was to be MJ's concert series) were also owners of the Grammy Museum... and the Nokia Plaza (which includes a music venue/theater and several surrounding restaurants)... AND the Staples Center where the memorial would be held the next day.

Well, the musuem was Ok - lots of interactive booths and sound exhibits. The special Neil Diamond exhibit was pretty good, actually. When we finally got to the MJ exhibit, it wasn't much: just three of his famed beaded jackets, a couple of gloves in a glass case and adjacent was a mini-round theater screening of all his Grammy appearances since the Jackson Five. Still, the press was there taking video of the glass case and screening.

What looked to be a 3-ring circus ended up being a rather moving tribute to the tremendous artist (and no, I do not believe he did anything indecent with those kids. Was he inappropriate on some level? Yeah, sure. But did he cross that horrible line... my intuition tells me no, he didn't.) What irks me is this AEG company - making untold millions from MJ dead or alive (that rehearsal footage will sell millions of DVDs) - and they cannot pick up the tab for LA providing police security from a financially strapped city.