Murray Guilty

It was no surprise that a Los Angeles jury, after deliberating for not quite two days, convicted Dr. Conrad Murray of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson. With what proved to be a lethal combination of ineptitude and sheer incompetence, Murray's crime was allowing the glow of the King of Pop's celebrity to interfere with his professional judgment and responsibility as a physician. But the trial also reminded us once again that Jackson was a drug addict and tormented soul who sadly never came to grips with being deprived of a childhood.

Never Can Say Goodbye

Michael Joseph Jackson, aka the King of Pop, will finally - and mercifully - be laid to rest today in a celebrity studded mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale, California.

Michael Jackson 1958-2009

Two things are undeniably true of the self-anointed King of Pop Michael Jackson, who died suddenly of cardiac arrest Thursday in Los Angeles. One, he was an extraordinarily talented and gifted entertainer, singer, and dancer; indeed, of all his contemporaries, he is most deserving of the appellation musical genius. And two, he was an inscrutably tortured soul whose eccentricities grew increasingly more bizarre and stranger as time wore on. That behavior resulted in child molestation scandals and a seemingly never ending string of lawsuits that tarnished his reputation. Whether the latter similarly tarnishes his legacy now that he is gone can only be answered over time.

Michael Jackson

On the occasion of Michael Jackson's announcement of touring again, Daniel Frankelstein posits that it is impossible to separate his often bizarre eccentricity from an appreciation of his artistic achievements:

It is impossible to appreciate or enjoy Jacko in the same way as it was when - say - he sang so gloriously in the Jackson 5. Hardly anybody who listens to him now does it without his biography influences the way they listen.

Melding what we think we know of the artist's life with what we are hearing in his music is a natural human reaction. It's what we do. Anything else is an incomplete account.

As a practical matter, for me it is impossible to listen to Jackson's P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) and not think of his trial on charges of pedophilia.

Thriller

At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.
George Orwell

Michael Jackson, the self-proclaimed "King Of Pop," turns 50 years old today. Happy birthday, Michael. Coincidentally, he shares the birthday with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Whatever that means, I am not sure, so I'll leave it at that. But one thing is certain: Jackson's seemingly endless talent is rivaled only by his strangeness.