Society and Celebrity Deaths

[dmc]

Pot, meet kettle.

Difference is.. I don't go around claiming I'm not...

 

[Beetlenut]

<Rant>
I could care less about these celebrity deaths, and am sick of the news coverage they receive. My god, you turn on CNN, and all you see is MJ coverage. It's just a distraction from the real news in the world that no one wants to hear about or deal with. The news today seems to be all about distractions. If you watch the BBC news on one of the public stations, you hear about stories around the world that get no coverage over here. Christ there's not even any weather on the weather channel anymore!
</Rant>

 

[Edd]

I've seen weeping MJ fans on television who take his death VERY seriously. To them, it matters.

I remember being surprisingly pissed off when Phil Hartman died. How it happened was shitty. I loved Newsradio. The guy made me laugh hard.

 

[deadheadskier]

I would fall into that category with the Bruins as I'm not much of a hockey fan. I'll watch parts of a handful of games throughout the season, but considerably more in the playoffs. The C's, Sox and Pats I'm far more die hard though. I did play Basketball, Baseball and Football, I am a fan of the sports and typically know who the better teams are out there, but I don't watch a lot of games for teams outside of New England.

As much as I enjoy watching the world class athletes perform at such a high level, with the New England teams; it's more about a sense of place and pride for me. They are as much a part of my home here in New England as Cape Cod Beaches, Package Stores, Rotaries, Old Homes and Buildings, Mountains etc. When I lived outside of New England, I missed it and there is NO WHERE in the country that likes its sports teams like New England does.

There are very few things in life that can bring a community or even a family together like sports do. In many parts of the country, the local High School team is what matters most. Whether that's a good thing or bad thing is certainly up for debate. After a big win by a New England team, two drunken guys at a bar that on any other night might have brawled after last call, rejoice instead and might become good friends :lol: Growing up my father was hardly ever around because of work. This often created a fair amount of tension between the two of us. However, put the game on during the limited time we had together and all was well.

What I think would be really cool is if US sports leagues were like European Soccer teams where the local club teams can fight there way up to the pros. But, if you don't care for how rabid fans get about sports here in New England, I'm sure you'd HATE that aspect of society in Europe. Ten times as hard core over there.

Zero f'n pride being a New Englander right about now :lol:

Go Red Sucks!

 

[bigbog]

..the MJ crowd..

I've seen weeping MJ fans on television who take his death VERY seriously. To them, it matters.......

Kinda like the sobbing tenaged girls when the Beatles cancelled out on part of their initial? US tour..;-) ...But now..mature(you'd think) young adults or the coke era praisin' MJ...
;-)...Well, at least most of em' stay near the cities when the snow flies...so here's to em'!!

 

[dmc]

I cried when John Lennon died...

 

[SkiDork]

I cried when John Lennon died...

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

Don McLean

 

[dmc]

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

Don McLean

When I finally discovered how great Buddy Holly was and that he died so young - i cried...

What a waste.... He's one of those guys that i wonder what he'd be up to now if still alive..

 

[snoseek]

Isn't it weird how water cooler talk (online and in the office... and at home for that matter) inevitably always turns to celebrity deaths? Why do people get so caught up in discussing deaths of people that had essentially zero to minimal effect on people's lives? As a recent example, to date I have yet to hear someone talk about M.J. as someone who's music seriously and profoundly effected their lives. People generally discuss the death itself, how "tragic" it is, and in M.J.'s case, pedophilia and cosmetic surgery. Am I the only one that could care less when a celebrity dies that has had no major and lasting effect on my life?

So did you care less when say Doug Coombs or Shane McConkey died? You as a lifelong skier felt nothing?

 

[riverc0il]

So did you care less when say Doug Coombs or Shane McConkey died? You as a lifelong skier felt nothing?

Having known neither of them personally and neither of them having significantly impacted my life... no, I did not "feel" anything personally about their deaths. I was definitely disappointed that that backcountry world lost two superstars and it is too bad for their friends and family to loose someone that young. But it didn't effect me at all. People die everyday. People who are very important to their friends, family, social networks, communities, places of work, etc. Are high profile deaths newsworthy? Yes, in that it is something that people want to know about. Do they effect people personally? Some do for some people. Most don't for most people.

I was massively bummed when James Brown passed away as he was an influence and I wanted to see him in concert. I certainly didn't "feel" anything when he passed away though. I didn't know him from any other random person despite his having substantial effect on my life in many ways.

 

[mondeo]

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

Don McLean

Oh Lord! We'll have to endure the horrible music of the Big Bopper, and then the terrible tragedy of his death!

 

[marcski]

I never saw this thread until now.

I just listened to a whole bunch of MJ's classic music. Regardless of what he did in his personal life and regardless of whether his music was/is your cup of tea, the guy was one of the most talented performers, period. He could dance like no other...hands down. Plus, something I never realized until he died, was the extent that he wrote his own songs. He's got the highest selling album of all time, he's a double-inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he's got multiple Guiness World Records, including the "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time"; 13 Grammy's 17 Number 1 singes (four with the Jackson 5 and estimated sales of over 750 million records world-wide.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson#cite_note-record_sales-1

So, yeah, why would anyone talk about him after he died.