It is an amazing time to be alive.  Never before has information been so accessible or so fast.  Airplanes have internet and fuzzy ant television is now a thing of ancient history.  Changes in media culture are happening quicker and quicker.  Take the time between the inventions of radio and television… it was decades.  Now it’s a matter of months before the new gaming system or new iphone comes out.  People not only expect this, but also make their lives revolve around the latest and greatest.  The pressure to keep up with the Jones’ is pretty overwhelming.  Today will be marked in history as one of the largest audiences ever at and watching Michael Jackson’s memorial, I can’t help but think if this had happened 10 years ago, would it be the same?  Celebrity culture has always been an odd and awed phenomena, but with the advent of everything happening so quickly – it has definitely been thrust even more into the spotlight.  Fans on CNN who were hanging out at Neverland called him a “prophet.”  And the outpouring of tributes and grief are like nothing the world has seen.  I’m not even sure if Princess Diana, who likewise had an enormous outpouring of tribute and grief attributed to her death, had the massive amount of attention that I’ve heard from my friends all over the world who are struck by Michael’s impact there.  Sure in Los Angeles, it’s kind of normal, but Haiti? People received tickets to Michael Jackson’s memorial on Sunday and could fly half way around the world to be in Los Angeles by Tuesday morning and they are here.

continue reading