In other news, Michael Jackson is still dead

I've been wanting to comment on Michael Jackson's death but eventually thought against it for two reasons: (1) It's not fun diving into a pool with millions of people already in it, and (2) I was hoping the overreaction would end soon.

A week after his memorial, I'm still wrong. We're still hearing about how his crazy siblings can't agree on what to do to his body and every music channel on cable is still showing all of his videos, the ages of which only succeed in demonstrating how Michael Jackson's career had been dead for more than a decade now.

Right now, I still don't feel like commenting on the whole thing, especially after reading Bill Simmons' latest column. He already summed everything up:

"I can't get over how these past two weeks improbably rejuvenated his career. I always thought the guy would die and everyone would say, 'What a shame that such a terrific artist turned into such a freak show.' Instead, almost everyone said, 'So what if he became a freak show. I forgot what a great musician he was!' He had been spending the past few months planning a massive comeback, when dying was the best possible comeback. And if you think about it, it's the only way he could have come back, because he had torched his career in so many ways."

"Death isn't necessarily a bad career move for artists, as Kurt Cobain, Elvis Presley, Heath Ledger, Jim Morrison, River Phoenix and Jeff Buckley all proved over the years. But for Jackson, it was the ultimate career move. For the first time in four presidential terms, the world celebrated his music again. Young people said, 'Wow, he was really good!' Everyone else said, 'Wow, I forgot how good he was!' And the vast majority of Americans gave him a two-decade mulligan on every weird (and potentially criminal) thing he had done. I almost wonder whether, had he known what would happen, he would have done it sooner."