Michael Jackson funeral

Today is Michael Jackson's funeral; what a circus. All the stations are covering it, but the quality is bad; there are some blackouts and dropouts, hopefully if will improve. CBS has now cut away to the outside crowds. Inside the Staples Centre something is going on, (Smokey Robinson read a letter from Diana Ross) although his body has not arrived. There are tons of people at Neverland. Michael is to be interred at Forest Lawn.
10:34 - The casket has arrived and a choir is singing "We are Going to See the King." I see his brothers are pallbearers... and now the pastor is speaking.
10:40 - Mariah Carey is now on to perform, "I'll be There." She had done a cover of this song and I understand Michael liked it. I always thought is was good and often covers are not as good as the original. She is joined by someone but I do not know who he is, but he can sing almost as high as her. If I caught his name correctly, he is her back up singer Trey Loren [sic].
10:45 - Queen Latifah is speaking. She is also reading aloud a poem called "We Had Him" by Maya Angelou written for the occasion.
10:50 - Lionel Richie is now on to sing a hymn "Jesus is Love."
10:54 - Berry Gordi (founder of Motown) is now speaking. There are short bits of the Jackson 5 being shown.
11:03 - Now a video tribute montage of Michael is being presented.
11:07 _ Stevie Wonder is now on stage. First he has some words to say. His voice sounds sad. He is now performing "I Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer"; I didn't catch if he just wrote this or if had been a song Michael sang. Kind of prophetic if it's the latter.
11:15 - Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson has come on to speak about their relationship with Michael and the Jacksons. They also spoke of Michael's humanitarian interests. I guess he make the Guinness Book of World Records for being the celebrity with the most charities contributed to and being part of.
11:21 - Now Jennifer Hudson is performing "(?) You're Always in my Heart". I remember when I first saw her audition for American Idol; I knew for sure she'd be in the final two and probably win the prize. Well she was eliminated as the fifth from the top. I was shocked. I felt she was robbed. I was really pleased when I heard she was on Broadway, on "Dream Girls" and then when she won the Golden Globe and the Oscar (did she also get a Tony?) I thought "SO THERE IDOL".
11:25 - Egads, it's Reverend Al Sharpton. Bert calls him an ambulance chaser. He does seem to appear on the news whenever an African American dies whether it is a celebrity or some poor person who clashed with the law and lost. Does he have a congregation he belongs to regularly? I really do not know. I should Google him. The cameras are showing his children in the front row. His daughter, Paris, is the only one really listening. Prince is chewing gum and "Blanket" looks bored to tears.
11:33 - Something's happening if the reaction of the crowd is something to go by... oh, I see, John Mayer is coming on stage. Sounds like he's doing "Human Nature" just on guitar, his back up choir is adding in words on the chorus.
11:39 - Brook Shields is now on. They used to date and were good friends.
11:47 - Brooks speech was very touching and emotional. And now Jermaine Jackson is performing the song "Smile" which Brook had said was his favourite song. He has a single white glove on, just like Michael's, maybe it even is Thee glove.
11:52 - Martin and Bernice King (Martin Luther King Jr.'s children) are now on.
11:59 - Congresswoman Rep. Sheila Jackson of Texas (D) is now speaking. She's an impressive speaker and I like her speech. I am taping the event so now I'll have it on tape. Like so many of my customers who have died, I am learning things about Michael, things he did, that I never knew. Why can't we learn more about people before they die. I feel like I have done so little when I read some the obituaries. l used to think I was put on this earth to do something special. Sometimes I thought it was perhaps to make a difference in someone's life, but how will I know that I have done that. Perhaps it hasn't happened yet. I used to think perhaps it would be merely producing a child who would grow up to do great things. Now I know that will never happen but perhaps I can still inspire someone, but I will never know.
12:08 - Usher is on singing "Gone Too Soon". He walked down to the casket to sing and his voice cracked on the last sentence. I guess this is the song that Michael had written for Ryan White when he died from AIDs.
I see Joe Jackson is also chewing gum.
12:13 - Smokey Robinson is now on speaking.
12:13 - Shaheen Jafargholi, from Britain's Got Talent, is on. He's 13 I think. He's performing an old Jackson 5 tune.
12:22 - Ortega, Michael's producer of his upcoming London concert's is now speaking. I guess Michael had invited Shaheen to be part of his show.
12:25 - Now they are presenting a part of the London show by the London Tour Group. They are singing "We are the World". I wonder if this the finale. Now they singing "Heal the World".
12:34 - I guess that was the end. Jermaine is now speaking, thanking everyone. After him Marlon now is speaking. The family is gathered around him. I wonder how many will speak? I never knew Marlon had a twin (Brandon). Next is Paris, Michael's daughter, she got her words out but broke down crying. So that's the memorial. I guess all the brothers were wearing a single glove.
Well I guess I better go now. There will be tons of coverage of the memorial on the news. There has already been some much done since he died. Every night on Entertainment and other news magazines there's been almost nothing but coverage of Michael.

Madame Tussaud

I's a balmy 95F. Compared to the previous couple days, that's nice. We want to give Gandalf a Lion cut. I feel really bad, I accidently cut him with the scissors and I didn't even know it because he didn't react when it happened. I feel so bad.

We went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. It was okay. It seemed kind of sparse. I've been to the one in London and that was impressive, but here, although the figures were well done (I expected Larry King to start talking) there weren't very many. They also include a haunted pathway which wasn't very scary or even well done. It was really amateur. I've been to neighbourhood haunted houses that were much more superior. I really felt gypt. There were no figures of the Beatles either! There was one of Michael Jackson set up in front and everyone was having their picture taken with it. I didn't do that. It was a very good likeness.

Getting off to a slow start! It's hot, but not as hot as it is going to get apparently. Next week we will go over 100, but that's normal here in Vegas. It's our first summer here. I worry about our cats, some are already panting without any physical effort involved. I especially worry about our 17 year old, Gandalf; he is long-haired and black.

There is certainly lots to see here in Vegas. We've gone through several of the casinos looking through their gift shops and checking out their individual little specialties. Recently we were in Caesar's and watched their live statues displays. Interesting but unintelligible. The Atlantis show is better than the Bacchus show and it has a dragon at the finale...cool!

We haven't gone to any of the big shows, too expensive. We wanted to see Paul McCartney when he was here, but his tickets started at $700.00 (gasp..you heard right) and that didn't include all the service charges. We did see the final show of Folies Bergeres. It was one of the last of the glitzy show-girls type show; it ran forty-nine and a half years. The tickets weren't particularly expensive and the magician in the show was good. Penn Gillette was in the audience.

I came here thinking we'd see an occasional well known face but to be honest, aside from Penn, we haven't seen anyone. Oh, well. I also hoped to see people I knew personally but no one's been out here. Then again the summer has barely started.

First Entry

2009-06-04

Whoo-hoo I have a blog! I know that sounds silly but I am excited.