Being there -- Michael Jackson's Memorial at Staples Center [View All]

My wife was one of the lucky people who got tickets to the Memorial. She opened her email at 12:30 on Monday and saw that we had missed our chance because we had to reply by 12:00. Luckily later she recieved an email saying they extended the deadline so we got our voucher from Ticketmaster, drove over to Dodger Stadium where there was a line of cars receiving tickets from LA Police. They put gold wristbands on us before giving us the tickets to prevent ticket scalping.

The Staples memorial on Tuesday was pretty well organized. One glitch was a cop pointing to a line of cars for parking but after waiting for a long time was told this was the VIP parking and we had to go to a regular, pay public lot.

The crazy Westboro Baptist Church people were there from Kansas with "God Hates Fags" and "Jacko Burns in Hell" signs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Most_Hated_Family_in_America
(This is a great BBC documentary about them)

We got in line just about when the line started moving in. It was a very long line but moved quickly. Everyone was well behaved. There were a few hawkers selling tshirts and black ribbons but not many. We passed the huge MJ walls and signed our names.

Inside we had a good view of the stage from the side. We brought binoculars so I could look around the audience and see who was there. I watched Spike Lee enter and sit down. Some strange guy in a hat and Michael Jackson type suit wandered around the VIP floor for awhile. I didn't know who he was until I checked the internet later. Corey Feldman. I didn't recognize any other people in the audience until the Jackson family came in.

After Smokey Robinson read the first couple of letters there was about 20 minutes before the Jackson family arrived. The place was nearly silent the whole time. Just a few whispers around.The musicians looked at each other and shrugged.

When the Jacksons finally arrived it took several minutes for them to all sit down.

Michael's daughter entered sobbing and La Toya held her for a long time. The youngest son carried and played with a Michael Jackson doll the whole time. The kids sat between Katherine and Joe. Janet sat on the end nearest us so I could see her clearly.

Michael's two boys were a little fidgety but his daughter was intently absorbed in the whole presentation. When someone mentioned her grandmother, she gave Katherine a big hug. The youngest boy moved around to be with different family members during the last half of the presentation.

All the brothers wore one spangly glove in honor of MJ.

It was sobering to hear people talk about experiences with MJ, see the photos and then look over at the casket.

Janet often nodded to herself when people talked about Michael's character. When she heard about Michael eating Kentucky Fried Chicken, she smiled and nodded vigorously .

There was a teleprompter that some of the presenters used. Some would stray from the teleprompter text to express something more from the heart and some didn't use it at all. Rev. Al Sharpton had no notes and no teleprompter.

I haven't seen it on TV yet but It was moving.
When Paris talked about loving her dad it brought out a lot of tears. It was spontaneous and it was real.

There were a few moments of someone yelling out, "Michael we love you!" but they were few and isolated.

A girl sitting opposite me showed no expression or reaction during the whole show. She almost seemed bored. But when they carried the casket out in front of us she burst out "Michael!" and broke down crying. The woman next to her, who wasn't with her, held her as she cried.

The brothers carrying out the casket had a very final feel. Afterward, a minister had everyone in the audience hold hands and led a prayer.

As we left the stadium, there was an airplane skywriting "MJ".

Overall, I have a bit more respect for Michael after seeing how much the loss affected his family and friends. He wasn't just a 'thing' to them. He had some quirks but he wasn't "strange". They all seem to feel he was a very warm, lively caring person with a difficult life to manage.

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When I got home I checked ebay and found that the programs we were given were selling up to $700! But soon after a lot of them were "buy it now" items for $5.00 .