A Michael Jackson link worth forwarding
Unless you’ve been out on the Appalachian Trail for the past few days, you already know that Michael Jackson is dead. By now, you’ve probably read the obsessive news coverage, the hacky jokes, the celebrity tributes, the essays about Twitter and the future of journalism, and even the pathetic online feud between Perez Hilton and the jerk from Fall Out Boy – so I guess there’s no point in linking to any of it. Instead, I’m going to link to this.
I Remember Michael is a very simple website, a very tasteful tribute, and a very good idea. It acknowledges and celebrates a life and legacy simply by saying “Let’s honour Michael Jackson’s memory by opening our hearts to some of the many causes he supported during his life,” and providing links to eighteen related organizations.
That’s all it does, and that’s what makes it great. There are no lengthy blurbs that try to define the life of a person known to billions, and no self-indulgent anecdotes or selfish attempts to co-opt that person’s passing. In fact, not only does the designer take no credit for the site, but he asked me not to identify him. There’s no attempt here to gain anything from Michael Jackson’s life or death, except a few donations to a few great causes.
I think it’s great idea done very well. It’s like a thoughtful, tasteful needle in a haystack of pop culture crap. I hope you’ll agree, I hope you’ll take a moment to forward the link, and I hope we can all shell out a few bucks to the organization of our choice.
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I’ve made so many hacky jokes about Michael Jackson. But he was our generation’s Elvis. And I’ve always felt that I missed out by not having a blog when Elvis died on a toilet. I could have had a field day with that.
Yours were admittedly a lot better than most of the Michael Jackson jokes I’ve read so far. But I think that’s partly because we can all enjoy a good Jermaine pun.