Michael Jackson is Dead @ 50

It’s been a suspenseful news day as far as MJ is concerned.  In fact, it’s been a bit of a Thriller.  This afternoon Jackson went into cardiac arrest and was rushed to a hospital by fire dept. paramedics.  At 2:12pm today, the LA times updated their report as follows:

“Paramedics were called to a home on the 100 block of Carolwood Drive off Sunset Boulevard. Jackson rented the Bel Air home for $100,000 a month. It was described as a French chateau estate built in 2002 with seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 12 fireplaces and a theater.”

It”s a miracle that they found him.  If he was still living on Neverland, it may have taken days to locate his body in a ferris wheel or petting zoo.

Their earlier report stated:

“Capt. Steve Ruda said paramedics responded to a call at Jackson’s home around 12:26 p.m. He was not breathing when they arrived. The parademics performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda told The Times.”

According to E! News, Jackson was delivered to the UCLA Medical Center just after 1 p.m.  UCLA is, apparently, only about 2.5 miles from his home and he was able to be transported within 2 minutes.

From what we understand, he was already in a coma when help arrived.  His father, who is currently is Las Vegas, was reportedly alerted of the hospitalization and his sister, Latoya, was on hand waiting in the hospital hoping for a revival that never came.

TMZ reports that .”..when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.  A source tells (them) Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived.  Once at the hospital, the staff tried to resuscitate him but he was completely unresponsive.”

MJ was preparing to relaunch his career by performing 50 sold out shows at the O2 Arena in London.  The LA Times article states that there were even plans that his return “could ultimately encompass a three-year world tour, a new album, movies, a Graceland-like museum, musical revues in Las Vegas and Macau, and even a “Thriller” casino.”

I was smoking cigarettes on my balcony last night, dancing around and singing “P.Y.T.”  I didn’t see this coming.  I listened to Off the Wall religiously when I was in high school and it would have been nice to see him get back on his game before going down so hard.  His influence is still huge, regardless of the punchline that he has become over the last decade.  In fact, Jonah Hill just posed in a Michael Jackson inspired spread for the most recent issue of Complex Magazine.

Although the news of MJ‘s death and poor health seemed to come out of nowhere, we here  at Monster Fresh suspect that there may have been some prior information to his condition.  On Jackson‘s official tour page, the lead off date of July 13th had already been marked as “Rescheduled“.  This is generally never a good sign.

His name lives on, if not metaphorically through his memory as one of the biggest musical phenomenons of all-time, it will be sure to do so literally, through his offspring:
Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr.
Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and
Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II

This is going to spawn endless monologue jokes and fucked up comments, but this is a goddam tragedy.  For those of you who have forgotten why MJ was so important in the first place, we’ve provided some video evidence through one of my favorite songs EVER.  He may have become more like a cartoon over time, but hopefully, this video will remind us all that he was a person, that the situation is unfortunate, and why everyone loved him so much.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DYgf_Cl59o[/youtube]