Beautiful Cynicism III

Emotional and psychological disturbances aside, when it came to pop music and dance, the guy knew his stuff.

On a day where Farah Fawcett died, and coming a day after Ed McMahon passed away, these past 48 hours have constituted a bit of a dark period for the American entertainment world. Ed McMahon was an older gentleman; and it was well-known that Farah Fawcett was suffering from terminal cancer. But Michael Jackson was young and reportedly healthy – he would have celebrated his 51st birthday this August (on the same day as me)… Mr. McMahon and Ms. Fawcett found their fame before my time but were always present in the popular culture, and I danced along with the so-called King of Pop as he rose to (solo) fame as I grew up. None of these three were particularly important figures in my life, personally, yet it’s somehow a bit of a shock. It’s like a neighbourhood tree that you’ve never really stopped to look at, suddenly being cut down: something that was just kind of part of the background is no longer there.

Unfortunately, many are still unwilling (or unable) to hear the message…

But the place which you have selected for your camp, though never so rough and grim, begins at once to have its attractions, and becomes a very centre of civilization to you: “Home is home, be it never so homely.”

Citations: Henry David Thoreau