Today is the day. Today is the day that the world says its final farewell to Michael Jackson who, as pretty much everyone on planet Earth knows by now, passed away on Thursday June 25. Today at 10AM PT — family, friends and thousands of fans will gather at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, CA to pay tribute to the late King of Pop in one grandiose memorial service:
Additionally, countless others will tune in to watch the event from their televisions, computers, etc. the world over to be a part of today’s service. I am lucky enough to be able to attend today’s memorial service at the Staples Center in person and I plan on sharing as much of my perspective of the memorial service as I can with all y’all. Behind the cut, you will find an embedded live stream of the memorial service in case you cannot be near a TV and want to watch the service live as it happens. Right below you will find my live Twitter tweets from the Michael Jackson memorial service. If YOU would like to participate in the discussion and see your tweets below be sure to include #pinkmj in your tweets and they will show up below as well:
If, for some reason, the live Twitter feed does not work properly you can always follow my tweets HERE and can follow the #pinkmj discussion HERE. After the jump, you will find a live stream of CBS‘s satellite broadcast of Michael Jackson‘s Memorial Service at the Staples Center as it airs live over their network feed so that you can watch the whole service RIGHT HERE on Pink is the new Blog …
This final farewell to the late King of Pop may, without much exaggeration, be among the most watched events in world history. Let’s all say goodbye together.
[Photo credit: Bauer-Griffin; Source]
For Heather and Geana
I think it’s horrendous how much attention is being paid to this. I’m sorry, but there are soldiers and service men and women dying every day for our country, and they get almost zero recognition or respect.
I understand your concern and I am right there with you. I have two brothers overseas.. and I only have 2 brothers as siblings.
However:
MJ physically changed bigotry in my life that my father instilled in me from a young age. I have two beautiful children THAT MIGHT NOT HAVE EXISTED had MJ not opened my eyes to the fact that we are all humans.
He has changed perception and offered lyrics of healing / acceptance that transcend the globe.
This is why it is a big deal. This is why all channels focused on HIM today to celebrate his life.
I wish every time a soldier passed, there was a national moment of silence. It should be mandatory, but it is not.
Until then ..
Please allow me/us to celebrate the life of ONE man who infected / affected/ effected
the entire globe of humanity.
- TY again Trent / David for keeping us informed.
With this economy and the debt of the State of California. Should we have been paying for security on a child molesters funeral? No. We should not have. The only reason half of these people have such “kind words” to say about MJ is because its what is “in” right now. Everyone hung so much shit on him for bleaching his skin (or whatever his excuse was for that) and molesting children.(There are websites dedicated to MJ jokes) but as soon as he dies everyone is his biggest fan! Yes, he was an iconic individual in music history – but sorry, I think there are 800 other things the money could have been used for. Good thing California fired all those teachers so we could pay for Michael Jacksons funeral. Children will totally learn more from watching Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson’s bigotry than sitting in their 10th grade English class.California=Fail.
Note to self (again): you cannot reason with the unreasonable
The WORST part about this whole funeral was the cynicism of Michael Jackson’s so-called “friends” and “family” there for the funeral making appearances. Where in the HELL were they when he needed them? I feel so terrible for him. He was a sick man. His family and “friends” needed to get him help, they needed to get him the right types of mental health attention and help him to get on the right medication for his very obvious ill state. He was a DRUG ADDICT and addicts need help. instead his friends and family allowed him to continue to use doctors perscribing him medication illegally.
Geraldo Rivera was one of Michael Jackson’s very best of friends and he tried as hard as he could to help him. He refused to attend this over the top and expensive (for the citizens of California) “memorial” in respect. I applaud him for that.
And listening to Al Sharpton speak made me sick! He is a ridiculous racist, a liar, and a disgrace to the entire event.
I sincerely hope his Children will be well taken care of and not pulled and yanked in the different directions of “where the money will be”
Godbless you Michael Jackson, I hope you are in a much much happier place.
Stevie Wonder was just sublime, perfect, haunting and full of grace.lovely.
R.I.P Soldier.
@ realist you are a jerk and have no respect for the dead! no matter how you hatefull you feel toward michael jackson you didnt need to say it. he was someones brother son father and friend. if your gonna be a prick put your real name down and take credit for your work.
Why does it matter how Trent got his tickets? – l live in Australia and slept thru my 3 am alarm.. It was good too wake up this morning and be able to read the tweets about the service until the news came on. There will always be someone finding something to complain about.. Trent – thanks for a job well done!x
I am so sad he is gone. He gave us his soul thru his music and his dance and so he deserved this memorial. His children are so beautiful and my heart broke when I saw Paris talk about her daddy. I hope they get to live happy normal lives somehow. I’m sure Michael was an amazing father.
@ geana. You want my real name? Why? So you can add me on facebook? WTF does that matter. I do have respect for the dead. Which is why I thnk people who died differently deserve more attention than someone who was on a shit ton of painkillers and what not and died from it. im sorry but who doesn’t know that taking 32948329842 different pain killers would be bad for you? Who doesn’t know that injecting yourself with something they ONLY use at hospitals would be bad for you? You are probably about to start saying “WELL HIS DR PRESCRIBED IT!!!!!” sorry, but – if my doctor says hey I want you to take 3 diferent narcotic painkillers and inject yourself with this shit i yanked from the hospital last night, i’d be getting a second opinion. If all these people around him “cared” they should have “cared” enough to get him help. But they didnt. so yes, i am upset that my tax dollars went to a huge memorial service that didnt need to happen. I dont just blame the jackson family and all the blind supporters here. that d-bag villarigosa is also to blame. Why didnt he just say we couldn’t afford it? (because we CANT) it would have gone else where.
to the people talking about the soldiers you HAVE to watch the documentary “Why We Fight”. you can rent it at almost any movie rental store.
Hey realist,
Some are saying that the LA spent approx. $2.5M on MJ’s memorial. Now let’s take a look at the revenue generated… hotel costs for thousands flocking to the city (over $100/night), meal cost (let’s say $50/day and that is on the light side). Multiply that by approximately 10k people (approximate amount of people in LA from out of state). Should we add in rental cars (cause you cant get anywhere in LA without a car, right)? Then people going to attractions in the city? Then add in the donations from online going to LA from MJ fans (if every fan donated more than $1 it would more than cover MJ’s memorial cost and some of LA’s budget problems. This won’t happen, but account for some fans donating money)…. get my point?
I was working all day so I missed the whole thing. But I watched as many clips as I could on YouTube and I can’t believe how emotinal I now am. Michael Jackson represents my childhood like many others. His message of positivity was absolutely beautiful. I believe he was wrongly targeted. I don’t believe he abused anyone his entire life. And if he didn’t…if he was truly innocent….then how awful and wrong it seems for people who never knew him to say such horrible lies about him. Remember, he was acquitted! Man In The Mirror is my favourite song by him and it broke my heart in a million pieces when they played it as his casket was brought out of the arena. For me he will always live forever.
paris jackson was so touching and brought a bit of reality to the whole sordid mess: he was her dad. and she loved him. for those of you with children: you will be truly blessed if your child can say this about you during your final moments.
realist, i was just saying that if you really believed in what you were saying you wouldnt be such a coward and not put your realy name and fyi dont have a facebook.
so realist i decided that im just not going to comment on you anymore. you have no respect for anyone because if you did you wouldnt be saying the things you said about someone on the day of their memorial. michael jacksons family doesnt deserve it, in fact no one does. you were obviously not tought to treat others as you would like to be treated. im sorry your such a bitter person, i hope one day you can grow out of that.
MJ’s daughter’s speech was positively heartbreaking…really hard to watch. RIP Michael
I’m in no way an MJ fan. I didn’t even understand why the very people who have cast stones at MJ in the past are talking about him now as if he walked on water.
Growing up, I knew Michael Jackson as the moonwalker, the alleged pedophile and the weirdo (wacko jacko). I knew of his lavish and unconventional lifestyle. With all the hoopla surrounding his life (and death), I never thought of him as anything else other than an entertainer. The memorial service today showed that “the king of pop” is also someone’s friend, family and father.
@ realist
We all do things to “damage” our bodies (from smoking, overeating, eating the wrong things, not exercising enough …) – things that can result in heart attacks, cancer and/or death. Yes, we are accountable for these actions, but at the end of the road, even the “addicts” need a little bit of compassion.
I don’t like the fact that we are spending tax dollars towards something like this, but whether you like it or not, MJ has affected a lot of people’s lives.
Does anyone else think that MJ was buried prior to the memorial service? Now that it’s over, where the body is is a mystery. I felt from the get-go that the Jackson family held a private burial already, in accordance with Mrs Jackson’s wishes. The casket at the mem service was empty…and most likely fake. I doubt that gurney could hold a solid bronze casket. Just my thoughts…but I think perhaps there’s something in this.
Whatever Michael Jackson did or did not do, is neither here nor there. He stands before the only true judge now. Personally, if someone hurt my child in any way, NO amount of money would shut me up. Those people are greedy liars and believe me when I say they will earn every nickel they stole from Michael Jackson. I pray that he can sleep in peace now.
I would just like to say that I really and truely don’t understand some of the people commenting on here… you come on this CELEBRITY AND POP CULTURE GOSSIP SITE and you get all bent out of shape because of the media coverage and attention paid on a man who is without a doubt the biggest icon we will probably ever bear witness to?! I’m sorry but what did you think you were going to find on here? This post especially was about the Memorial Service for Michael Jackson, a man who might have had some problems in his personal life, but a man who was a genius and a poineer in the world of entertainment. For you people to come on here and to bust Trent and the rest of us and to leave lists of military men and women who have lost their lives is not only disrespectful to those who appreciate this site for what it is, but also highly inappropriate AND extremely judgemental! How dare you think that just because there are FANS who are in mourning over the loss of one of thier beloved icons, that we don’t think about other world issues?!
I think those of you and you know who I’m talking about (REALIST, GEANA, B, HEATHER) need to get a little bit of a grip on yourselves before you come on here and start blasting at people for being fans and showing their emotion. And for giving a guy crap for the way he chooses to run HIS website. If you don’t like it, why did you choose to sign on here in the first place?!
And can I just say that I truely appreciate your Twittering and continuous reports on this whole thing, Trent. You have done it with respect and humanity that those of us who appreciated him and his music absolutely thank you for.